Island Fever

U.S.A. Hawaii

Published

Anyone else wanna comment on island fever? Wanna share your thoughts, perspective, etc? - Lisa ;-)

For those of you on the mainland, who are thinking about moving here, here's a post for you!

We live on the island of Maui. My husband is working on the island of Kauai this week. He told me that's where Jurassic Park was filmed; the island is tropical, green, gorgeous! I'm thinking about joining him for the week-end. Back home, if we wanted to take a week-end vacation, we would

$ 30 fill up my gas tank, drive 200-300 miles to another city or small town,

$ 200 hotel room for 2 nights

$ 30 fill up my gas tank, drive back home (my car was smaller, got better mileage)

That's $ 260 total + meals.

Here, in Hawai'i, it's another story. I just checked prices:

$ 260 airfare Maui to Oahu to Kauai for 2 people

$ 100 rental car for 2 days

$ 200 hotel room for 2 nights

$ 200 airfare Kauai to Oahu to Maui for 2 people

That's $ 760 total + meals

My husband is on Kauai for business already, and his company will pay for his plane ticket back home, so that will save us some money. Minus the cost of his plane ticket, it will cost $ 530 for me to join him, and us to make it a week-end vacation. Why do I write this... to let you nurses on the mainland know that Hawai'i is an expensive place to live... in more ways than you think. -- Lisa ;-)

dh = dear husband pto = paid time off fob = fresh off the boat

heco = hawai'i electric company, your electric bill hvcb = ??? military pcs = ???

okie wrote: "after reading some posts over there (at other websites) for the past hour, i can tell that aloha is alive and well."

okie, you and i have very different outlooks. i've lived here for 11 months. for me, allnurses.com (an) posts have been filled with aloha! they tell it like it is. i've sent private messages to some an posters, and i've talked on the phone to some an posters. they help me to realize that i'm not a failure. hawai'i is in the absolute toughest economy it's had in 20 years. they help me to realize that it's not about me being screwed up, it's not about what i'm doing wrong. hard times, closed doors, rejection... it's happening everywhere, to everyone.

koi wrote: "those who do survive here posses the following characteristics... tremendous motivation to make a life here--as if the captain burned the ships after making landfall."

okie, there is a big difference between moving... mainland to mainland vs mainland to islands. my husband and i spent years furnishing our house. if we moved to another mainland state, we could have loaded up a huge uhaul van & driven it across the country. my husband is used to driving huge tractor-trailers, so he would have been comfortable driving it.

moving to hawai'i is different. we looked at shipping prices, and realized it would have cost us just as much $$ to ship furniture as it would cost to buy new stuff here. when we moved here, he gave a closet full of important stuff to a friend of his, for storage. we loaded up one pallet of stuff, 4 ft x 4 ft x 6 ft tall, and shipped it to maui, for about $1100. we brought four suitcases of stuff. we had a 4 bedroom house, and we sold everything else we had. everything we had built up for five years was torn apart in three months. that was really really hard.

six months after we got here, we were walking through a furniture store. i walked up to one particular table, i kept quiet, but tears started streaming down my face. my husband asked me what was wrong. i whispered to him, "we had that table back home." i thought of all the conversations i had with my girlfriends, sitting at that table. and then i thought of all the other things in our house, and all the memories those things were connected to. the tears wouldn't stop.

as women, we get emotionally attached to our homes, much the same way men get emotionally attached to the classic car or watch or tool set their dad gave them. it's not just about the financial cost of things. it's about the psychological/ emotional cost as well. i do think it would be easier if we had our old furniture here. our condo would have felt less foreign, would have felt more like home.

going back to the idea of aloha... when i read, "the captain burned the ships," i felt aloha. koi may not have been trying to give me empathy, but he (she?) did. koi knows where i am coming from. the ship had burned. i had never put it into those words, but koi hit the nail on the head. i have no other choice. i have to make it here. reading about resilience, independence, cultural tolerance, emotional and cognitive flexibility helps to remind me that moving here brings with it a huge learning curve. it takes it's toll on a person. in the last 11 months, i've heard many locals talk about the "first year initiation." it's kind of like what winward wrote. it's about paying your dues. like what koi wrote. it's about survival.

okie, it may not seem like aloha to you. it's definitely aloha to me.

all in all, the 20-30 other island nurses who post here have helped me realize that it may be year 2015 before the economy turns around and i can get a job as a new grad. they have been very clear with that. i took all that information and made a decision. i have no idea why my husband was given his job here. i don't know why the universe (spirit, higher power, alpha-omega, creator, the source) dropped a job in his lap, and moved us here. but, while i'm here, i'm going to make the best of it, and get my bachelor's if science in nursing (bsn) done. if the economy still hasn't turned around by then, i'll go for my masters.

the people here have given me information, given me clarity, given me real answers, honest answers.

in my opinion, from my perspective, that's not just kokua. that's aloha.

WindwardOahuRN: That was great advice about getting a subscription to the Honolulu newspaper. I had previously read the links from the Queen's website, and I do think it is a great resource for people to be aware of.

I do, sort of, understand what you are saying about the message boards. I really do like the message board (Citydata) for breaking down the communities and a top 10 tips list for moving to Hawaii. There are many posts about the downside of moving to and/or living in Hawaii on the message boards too, some of which I didn't know I needed to consider. To me, it's real experiences of people who have been able to be successful in their moves to Hawaii and others who weren't as successful and gave insight into why they weren't.

In reality, you, more than anyone else, who has been as active on the boards, are a success story (I am NOT slamming anyone else by saying this!). That was as good a reason as any for me to try and glean insight from you into how someone else might be successful in moving too. I wanted to learn from you.

All I was trying to say about the "aloha" is that I specifically sought information here, on allnurses, because I thought some level of rapport was already there with us all being nurses. My perceptions of the word "aloha" are simply: being helpful to one's fellow human (or nurse for the purposes of this board) and sharing of information bad AND good. It just felt, to me, like information was mostly bad and rarely good. The past few posts have provided valuable resources and information and I really am truly grateful for the information.

Lisa: I am glad to have seen your candor about the trials and tribulations in moving to Hawaii . It was a very moving story about you seeing YOUR furniture in the store and realizing those memories that were attached to your belongings. That is something I could have never envisioned or considered without you telling that story. It was meaningful.

Best of luck to you in pursuing your BSN and I hope that the upswing in the economy will happen sooner, rather than later. I wish you the greatest success in finding a nursing position and continuing with your educational goals.

I apologize if I have offended anyone here, it truly was not my intention.

1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in Makiki (Honolulu), 639sqft. Sell price: $260K. Gotta love it.

koi, thank you for the post!

for those of you not good at math... 640 sq feet... put another way... that's 20 feet x 32 feet.

depending on your credit and down payment, if you bought it for $ 260,000 your mortgage payment could be $1500 to $2200 per month. i'm guessing it's a condo. let's not forget an association fee. that could be $200 - $500 per month, on top of your mortgage.

dear mainlanders,

if you have the money to vacation here once a year, and to see hawai'i as paradise, relaxing, calm, soothing...

if hawai'i could be an escape for you... why on earth would you want to live here?

by the way, as people are reading these posts, if you like what someone wrote (me or anyone else), please click kudos and thank that person. mahalo!

Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

Aloha all!

Love the examples about the cost of dwellings!

Remember it's an Island and space is limited. Something you'll soon realize after being there for a while and having drove around the entire Island in less than a day.

Shipping things to the Island...If you've ever ordered something online or from a catalog, you'll notice the shipping exceptions: they usually don't include Hawaii, and if they do it's at an increased cost.

Economy is bad on the mainland, and it's bad on the Island. Google "Tent City Hawaii" and you'll see what I'm talking about. The ones that live in the Tent cities say that they are "house-less not homeless, because Hawaii is there home" with that being said...living in Hawaii is a way of life. Yes it's part of the United States...but it has it's own culture. If you are going it would be in your best interest to try to understand the lingo...Yes English is spoken, but "pigdin" is a mix of English, Hawiian and Slang that the Locals and residents use on a day-to-day basis. It's like another language.

I moved back multiple times, doing work from construction to tour guide driver. It's doable but like anything there will be change. You'll give up some things to acquire different things: such as beach, water, and sun!

I look at it this way, it's a paradise and lots of people want to live in paradise. Meaning that for every job there is a lot of applicants and competition...and that is for every job there. Not unlike the situation over here on the mainland due to the economy.

But, if it's your dream, you can make it your vision and make it reality. Not gonna be easy, but then the best things in life are never easy!

Maika'I pomaika'i (good luck)

Specializes in Critical Care.

>>Shipping things to the Island...If you've ever ordered something online or from a catalog, you'll notice the shipping exceptions: they usually don't include Hawaii, and if they do it's at an increased cost.

Over the years I've made it a practice not to buy from businesses that impose a surcharge on shipping to Hawaii unless it's something I desperately want or need and have no hope of ever finding here.

A lot of catalogue places just charge a standard charge for shipping anywhere in the US. Amazon.com is my absolute favorite. Their prices on so many different items are fantastic. Not only books and media items but small appliances, clothing. Most things sold directly through Amazon.com qualify for free shipping if the order is more than $25 and that includes shipping to Hawaii.

I like Macys.com and Target.com too. Many times you can take advantage of their special free shipping offers. The advantage to shopping at catalogue stores that have local outlets is that you can return unwanted items to the local store. Sears no longer has a catalogue but Land's End is owned by Sears so you can return their catalogue items to any Sears store. JC Penney has no stores on the island any more (I miss them...) but they do have one or two cataloque return desks somewhere. When they first closed down their department stores here they had lots of catalogue desks in the corners of local stores but no more. It's too much of a hassle to return stuff to their catalogue places now so I just don't bother ordering from them anymore.

Zappos.com is another one. I order my work sneakers from there because I simply cannot find them here. I get exactly the color and style I want, free shipping (and free return shipping too).

I do admit that you have to be a little more resourceful to get bargains here but it can be done.

The "traditiion of rip-off" is alive and well here. You'll often hear "well, we have to charge so much because of shipping." BS, bigtime.

Example: We're re-doing our bathroom. Gutted the place and in the process of tiling, etc. Fun.

We went to several local suppliers looking for a pre-made shower niche. This is a relatively small (about 12"x18"X4" deep) box made out of structural foam that you inset into a wall. You tile over it and use it for shampoo bottles, soap, etc. Not a big deal.

After researching it online we found that the usual price was about $60-$75, retail. Price at local Hawaii retailers? About $130. "Well, it has to be shipped from the mainland." LOL---the thing weighs about two pounds and is well within the shipping size restrictions of the USPS. No way does it cost up to $70 to ship that thing here.

We contacted the manufacturer, located in Michigan, and had it sent to us directly from them. It arrived here in five days. Total cost, including shipping? $76.

Beware the "Tradition of Rip-off." Sometimes you can't get around it but sometimes, with a bit of determination and research (YAY for the internet), you can.

Things DO cost more here, in general (especially large appliances) and some of that can truly be justified by shipping costs but some of it is just greedy BS on the part of merchants.

Here is a very old series that was in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that, in many ways, still applies today. It's what we walked into when we moved here:

http://archives.starbulletin.com/specials/price/index.html

And as much as the Big Box stores were maligned when they first came here, IMO they've made a huge difference in the comfort and affordability of daily life in Hawaii. Not only by providing availability of a wide range of goods but also by providing competition to those merchants who used the "Tradition of Rip-off" mentality to their advantage for so long.

koi, thank you for the post!

for those of you not good at math... 640 sq feet... put another way... that's 20 feet x 32 feet.

depending on your credit and down payment, if you bought it for $ 260,000 your mortgage payment could be $1500 to $2200 per month. i'm guessing it's a condo. let's not forget an association fee. that could be $200 - $500 per month, on top of your mortgage.

dear mainlanders,

if you have the money to vacation here once a year, and to see hawai'i as paradise, relaxing, calm, soothing...

if hawai'i could be an escape for you... why on earth would you want to live here?

by the way, as people are reading these posts, if you like what someone wrote (me or anyone else), please click kudos and thank that person. mahalo!

an old, wooden, termite-ridden bungalow in manoa is going for $1.2 million. a newly constructed, 2-story house (on a shared lot) without a lawn in makiki were going for $700k-1 million.

Specializes in Critical Care.

Check out neighborhoods and properties for sale here:

http://hicentral.com/properties/isle.asp?isle=1&type=mls

dh = dear husband pto = paid time off fob = fresh off the boat

heco = hawai'i electric company, your electric bill hvcb = ??? military pcs = ???

okie wrote: "after reading some posts over there (at other websites) for the past hour, i can tell that aloha is alive and well."

okie, you and i have very different outlooks. i've lived here for 11 months. for me, allnurses.com (an) posts have been filled with aloha! they tell it like it is. i've sent private messages to some an posters, and i've talked on the phone to some an posters. they help me to realize that i'm not a failure. hawai'i is in the absolute toughest economy it's had in 20 years. they help me to realize that it's not about me being screwed up, it's not about what i'm doing wrong. hard times, closed doors, rejection... it's happening everywhere, to everyone.

koi wrote: "those who do survive here posses the following characteristics... tremendous motivation to make a life here--as if the captain burned the ships after making landfall."

okie, there is a big difference between moving... mainland to mainland vs mainland to islands. my husband and i spent years furnishing our house. if we moved to another mainland state, we could have loaded up a huge uhaul van & driven it across the country. my husband is used to driving huge tractor-trailers, so he would have been comfortable driving it.

moving to hawai'i is different. we looked at shipping prices, and realized it would have cost us just as much $$ to ship furniture as it would cost to buy new stuff here. when we moved here, he gave a closet full of important stuff to a friend of his, for storage. we loaded up one pallet of stuff, 4 ft x 4 ft x 6 ft tall, and shipped it to maui, for about $1100. we brought four suitcases of stuff. we had a 4 bedroom house, and we sold everything else we had. everything we had built up for five years was torn apart in three months. that was really really hard.

six months after we got here, we were walking through a furniture store. i walked up to one particular table, i kept quiet, but tears started streaming down my face. my husband asked me what was wrong. i whispered to him, "we had that table back home." i thought of all the conversations i had with my girlfriends, sitting at that table. and then i thought of all the other things in our house, and all the memories those things were connected to. the tears wouldn't stop.

as women, we get emotionally attached to our homes, much the same way men get emotionally attached to the classic car or watch or tool set their dad gave them. it's not just about the financial cost of things. it's about the psychological/ emotional cost as well. i do think it would be easier if we had our old furniture here. our condo would have felt less foreign, would have felt more like home.

going back to the idea of aloha... when i read, "the captain burned the ships," i felt aloha. koi may not have been trying to give me empathy, but he (she?) did. koi knows where i am coming from. the ship had burned. i had never put it into those words, but koi hit the nail on the head. i have no other choice. i have to make it here. reading about resilience, independence, cultural tolerance, emotional and cognitive flexibility helps to remind me that moving here brings with it a huge learning curve. it takes it's toll on a person. in the last 11 months, i've heard many locals talk about the "first year initiation." it's kind of like what winward wrote. it's about paying your dues. like what koi wrote. it's about survival.

okie, it may not seem like aloha to you. it's definitely aloha to me.

all in all, the 20-30 other island nurses who post here have helped me realize that it may be year 2015 before the economy turns around and i can get a job as a new grad. they have been very clear with that. i took all that information and made a decision. i have no idea why my husband was given his job here. i don't know why the universe (spirit, higher power, alpha-omega, creator, the source) dropped a job in his lap, and moved us here. but, while i'm here, i'm going to make the best of it, and get my bachelor's if science in nursing (bsn) done. if the economy still hasn't turned around by then, i'll go for my masters.

the people here have given me information, given me clarity, given me real answers, honest answers.

in my opinion, from my perspective, that's not just kokua. that's aloha.

have you considered agency work? don't know what the job situation is like on maui, but it wouldn't hurt to try it.

Wow! Lisa from Maui you seen so unhappy there. I really hope you are able to find good work soon and like it. :)

Koi:

Thanks for trying to help. I have an LPN license here. Can't work registry as an LPN. They want one year of experience. All doors are closed.

I called one registry and asked if I can work as a CNA. They want one year of work experience as a CNA. After that, to tell the truth, I just gave up trying. I got sick of closed doors, with no help - whatsoever. No one saying, "This is what you need to do to succeed on this island." Honestly... I gave up trying.

Last month, I called nurse finders. Explained my situation. She said that she would be happy to hire me as a CNA. But, she's got lots of CNAs who are looking for work, and she can't find work for the ones she's got. (There's another thread on this forum about Craiglist and registries.) As Windward has said many times, there's just no work.

I thank you, again, for trying to help.

liberty bell wrote: wow! lisa from maui you seen so unhappy there. i really hope you are able to find good work soon and like it. :)

thanks! me too!

on the bright side... i'm almost done with my first year initiation. the locals say that if you can survive on this rock for a year, and you're still living here, you haven't left, it gets better. they can't explain why; that's just the way it works.

almost every day i ask spirit, "why am i here? i was planted back home. my roots ran deep. i was strong, i was grounded, i was growing, i was blossoming. why did spirit tear me out of the ground and transplant me here?"

the answer i get back is: "because one, your husband loves his job. so two, your job, this year, is to take care of your husband. and three, my greater plan is none of your business. all doors are closed because i that's my plan. when i want you to move, i'll open a door."

i am trying to create happiness for myself. believe it or not, allnurses.com helps. i don't feel like a failure because i realize that it's not just me. it's not personal. it's not like every other nurse has a job and i'm the only one who doesn't. everyone is hurting. and then i get warm-fuzzy posts from people like you, i get compassion, empathy, warm wishes. it helps me to create happiness for myself.

mahalo for your compassion. lisa ;-)

+ Add a Comment