Piknik ([info]piknik) wrote in [info]abouthawaii,
@ 2008-02-20 06:56:00
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Name: nikki

Age: 36

Location: Boulder, CO

Interests, Please: stay-at-home-mother, previously in medical school, knitting, dogs, twins

Have you been to Hawai'i? (if applicable): yes, once, on vacation, around 1993, to Maui

What do you like about Hawai'i? weather, sense of community, general nice attitude of locals

What do you dislike about Hawai'i? not sure. see below.

Hello all. I just joined for a very specific reason. We're considering moving to Hawai'i, but there are some things we're not getting information about, as it's difficult to weed through the massive volume of information on the web. We want to talk to people from the islands.

In reading past posts, I've seen many "moving there soon" posts, but not one of them was from a family with children, and everyone wants to move to the beach. We have twin toddlers and really want to move to Kula, on Maui. Do any of you have information about Kula?? Anyone from there??

One of our concerns is that being farther away, and a requisite plane trip from relatives, we're not sure if they'll visit as often as they do now. Do any of you have relatives on the mainland? What are your experiences with visitation of said relatives?

I understand that some Hawai'ians (sp?) are concerned with mainlanders with money moving in and changing the economic landscape of Hawai'i. I grew up in a tourist town, here in Colorado, and I totally relate to the concept of not caring much for tourists and people moving in and calling themselves "locals". How can we move to Hawai'i and not be one of those "foreigners"? I want to learn the language, and the information provided by the mod will definitely help with that. Is there anything else we can do to ease our transition and acceptance by locals? Am I just being too weird about it?

We have twins and I am the President of our local twins club. I have only found one twins club in Hawai'i, and it's on O'ahu. Is it difficult to get back and forth to the other islands for a simple 2-3 hour meeting? I'm not sure it would be worth it to start a new club on Maui, seeing that Hawai'i has the lowest incidence of twinning in the US. So I would just need to get over to O'ahu on a regular basis. Anyone else here have twins in Hawai'i??

Ok, I guess that's it for now. Any help is much appreciated and I thank you in advance for anything you can tell me.

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[info]sbilokonsky
2008-02-20 02:39 pm UTC (link)
i dont know if i can help, for the simple fact- we are on a delay on our moving to hawaii- however my best friend is from the islands. so i can give you what i know.

kula and kids- the only info i can give you is something you may already have- http://www.kula.org/
on oahu..they now have super farries to get back and forth on the islands- where you actually can take your car. this was a new thing that i just found out from my best friend. she said it is good for those who want to stay awhile on certain islands. other than just flying.

now we currently both live in europe and know about family being far away. her entire family is in hawaii, my kids are in texas. my understanding that vegas flights are uber cheap- therefore if you do want to visit family- you can go the route hawaii to vegas to end location.

btw- her uncle is a retired airline pilot for hawaiian airlines- so i can pick her brain some more for you if need be.

i helps at least a little

edit: forgot to add

on the transition...here is what my BFF told me....

if you follow the aloha spirit and respect the ways and actually try to learn and embrace the culture...YOU WILL NOT HAVE A PROBLEM.

so learn the pidgin ( pidgin to the max- i suggest), learn hawaiian folklore and try to learn the language ( which is a tough one for my tongue to wrap around- especially since i have been living in germany for 8 years and speak german )

then you should not have an issue being a Haole

Edited at 2008-02-20 02:46 pm UTC

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[info]piknik
2008-02-21 12:03 pm UTC (link)
Oh, I think I had that link but hadn't perused it yet. Thanks for reminding me to check it out!

And thanks for the other advice. So how do you cope with being so far from family? My brother lived in Germany for about 4-5 years after medical school (the military paid for his schooling), and we didn't really hear from him that whole time. I know Hawai'i isn't another country, but to my in-laws from Iowa, it might as well be.

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[info]sbilokonsky
2008-02-21 04:23 pm UTC (link)
iowa..lol...i lived there a few times!

well, we have flat rate on long distance. so phone calls weekly are a big deal when it comes to my kids. i have a mother in AZ, that does not have a computer so we write and i call her. my former stepmum i call- sometimes shoot emails. and i dont speak to my father ( personal issues) nor my brother who in fact are in iowa strangely.

with my state side friends, phone and emails.

i grew up moving alot so i think that helps me, but with my kids it is really hard to cope. however i know they are a phone call away. and i do go and see them. i have seen other friends also. one friend i flew out to see me, then i flew out to see them. i flew out my mother not to long ago. i have had friends fly out to see me also. which honestly i know is going to be the same once we arrive in hawaii- only difference is that i already do have some friends there ( which are my important ones). you cry, you pray and you get thru. honestly. but all in all i am more thankful for my chances to live in area that some people consider a holiday.

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[info]piknik
2008-02-21 08:21 pm UTC (link)
Hehe, we lived in AZ right before we came back to CO! And I don't talk to my brother or biological mother, who live in CO. Funny.

We've really moved around so much that it hardly even matters anymore. In April we will have our 6th anniversary together, and we've had about 11 homes. I say "about" because some we lived in for a few months and some were only rentals, but most of them have been purchases we've lived in for 6 months to 1.5 years. That's the longest we've been anywhere since we got married -- 1.5 years. So I'm used to not seeing friends and family because we can't get settled. Unfortunately, my step mom doesn't use email or a cell phone, so it's harder to keep in touch with her.

Did you say you were moving back to HI??

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[info]sbilokonsky
2008-02-21 08:23 pm UTC (link)
sorry i should say move to...my BFF is moving back sorry if i confused.

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[info]sbilokonsky
2008-02-21 08:26 pm UTC (link)
oh i want to edit something about the pidgin thing.

i meant it as learning the way of life more than anything. just pidgin happens to one of those things. i think more than anything just learning and respecting is #1.

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[info]forrest303
2008-02-20 07:15 pm UTC (link)
I would suggest you NOT try to speak pidgin to locals right away. Show up, shop where they do, and practice respect often. You WILL have some people be blantantly rude to you. Ignore them, and don't feed into the hate.

Once people see you around, they get used to you. It seems people rarely make friends with newcomers until they have been there at least six months due to the fact that MANY people leave after such a short time.

Unfortunately there are a lot of locals who are essentially rednecks. On the other hand a lot of people are kind and loving. Its another world at times.

Have fun and enjoy if you move there. I'm moving back to Hilo sometime in spring.

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[info]arwengaladriell
2008-02-21 02:42 am UTC (link)
yes, I agree you shouldn't try to speak pidgin right away, maybe not at all if you can't do it correctly. I'm not saying it to be rude, but IMO it's like any slang where doing it wrong becomes more comical. And there isn't anything wrong with not being able to do it. I don't think local people will penalize you for not being able to speak pidgin. but understanding it would probably help. Not all locals talk pidgin.
BTW don't count on the Superferry yet; it has been running into a lot of issues right now and isn't reliable due to weather and an ongoing legal battle with environmental protestors from Maui and Kauai. Traveling from one island may become an issue because of current airfare wars between new comer GO air and already established Hawn air and Aloha air. Prices used to be close to $80 to $100 round trip, but because of competition from GO prices have gone down to around $40. Sometimes there are sales for $19. but like I said, it is very much in the air right now and prices may go back to what they wer before GO came into the pickture.
Sorry for the long post.
PS
My husband is from Colorado. I'm from Oahu, but you wouldn't think it from hearing me talk :).

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[info]piknik
2008-02-21 12:09 pm UTC (link)
Honestly, I teach my boys "hello", "please", and "thank you" in a number of languages, including sign language. I think it's okay to use those, as they're courtesy and politeness measures. But I agree that using it when I'm not from there only defeats my purpose. I don't want to "blend in", I just want to get along.

Hehe, I wonder if the flight prices will change after GO air's little nap-taking flight!!!

Thanks for the info on the superferry. I guess I'll just have to see about that when I get there. We'll be visiting in the next couple of weeks, checking out the Kula area.

Thanks for all your info!

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[info]piknik
2008-02-21 12:06 pm UTC (link)
Yes, I agree about not speaking the local language right away. Honestly, I teach my boys "hello", "please", and "thank you" in a number of languages, including sign language. I think it's okay to use those, as they're courtesy and politeness measures.

Thanks so much for the info!

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[info]ichigogeisha
2008-02-21 06:37 pm UTC (link)
http://ssl.honoluluadvertiser.com/livinginparadise/2007/main

Even if you don't pick up the language, just being polite and using "aloha" and "mahalo (thank you)" are the only two words that will take you far with us.

...And please, don't worry about pidgin. We don't expect you to speak it (Heck, I don't, lol) and are more open to sharing the aloha spirit than how a person speaks. The accent, however, where your words and sentences may tend to have a raised inflection on the ends, might just grow on you faster than you'll realize. ;)

Rude people are everywhere. ...But the many more nice ones will restore your faith in us.

Aloha!

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[info]piknik
2008-02-21 08:25 pm UTC (link)
Even if you don't pick up the language, just being polite and using "aloha" and "mahalo (thank you)" are the only two words that will take you far with us.

This is *exactly* what I was hoping to hear. We've really gotten burnt out on unhappy people being so ugly to us. We live in Boulder, CO, and the people here are overeducated, rich, and liberal. We've encountered many people who tell us how to run our lives and how to raise our kids -- and they're not nice about it! We just want to be somewhere that people are genuinely NICE!

I hope I didn't give a bad impression of my pre-conceived ideas about the locals in Hawai'i. We've just heard things from friends who have only visited, I should have known they wouldn't know about *living* there!!

Mahalo!!

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