Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers
Posted by traci on 6/19/06
hi andy,
my name is traci. i'm 38, married with 4 kids. like so
many other people i want to live in hawaii. my husband is
nervous about the cost of living. we are in so. california
and it isn't cheap but we have a big home and great
schools. i want to know what the starting salary for
teachers is there? also, what other type of credentials do
i need other that my calif. one? for example, how much
might a 2000 sq. ft home be and where would you recommend
living? we are looking for a change but are very cautious.
please help,
thanks,
traci
On 5/12/06, Andy wrote:
> To Whom It May Concern,
>
> I've recently moved to Hawaii with my family from Taiwan,
> where I lived for more than a decade. In the year prior
> to our move, I often logged on to the Hawaii chatboard in
> order to get some practical advice as well as general
> impressions of the area of the U.S. I was planning to move
> back to. As it seems that people interested in moving to
> Hawaii and teaching there frequently access this website,
> I am writing to try to satisfy their curiosity on certain
> points and to give them a newcomer's set of impressions on
> what it's actually like here.
>
> First, I'd like to comment on the cost of living here,
> about which you read a lot of negative commentary. My
> impression at this point is that the proverbial high cost
> of living in the islands is exaggerated. True, I lived
> outside the U.S. for many years and am just now trying to
> get a sense of what day-to-day costs are like in my home
> country after being away for so long. But I have taken
> frequent vacations throughout the years to visit my family
> in Pennsylvania, and my sense is that, apart from the
> costs of housing, the day-to-day costs of getting by in
> Hawaii are about the same as on the mainland - IF, that
> is, you shop where the locals do and avoid paying the
> greedy middlemen who run things in areas where (often
> extremely wealthy) tourists hang out. I've read horror
> stories of people having to pay $6 for a gallon of milk or
> a box of cereal, but where we shop we don't pay more than
> $3.50 or so for either. Gas is 10&37; more expensive, but
of
> course you don't really feel it in most situations as
> you're living on an island where everything is in close
> location to everything else and the farthest distance you
> can actually drive from one place to another is about 44
> miles.
>
> The biggest difference, as might be expected, is with
> respect to home costs. Of course, things have gotten just
> as expensive in many areas of the U.S. mainland (and
> probably more expensive in fact in a lot of places such as
> California). The key thing is that you have to get used
> to living in smaller spaces. This is relatively easy for
> me, as I've spent the last decade living in the second
> most densely populated country on Earth, where you don't
> get much for your money when it comes to space. In fact,
> I've gotten so used to it that I've come to like living in
> modest spaces as you have that much less work to do
> keeping everything in good condition. My impression is
> that most people in Hawaii simply don't feel the need for
> the grandiose spaces that people in general enjoy on the
> U.S. mainland. The majority of people here either have
> either immigrated from or descend from people who
> immigrated from heavily populated East Asian countries
> where people simply don't have so much space as we have in
> America or in Western Europe. The other thing is that, in
> an area of the world where the weather is so perfect, you
> don't feel the need to have such commodious indoor spaces
> simply because you don't feel the need to spend so much
> time indoors. I suspect that many people from the
> mainland who relocate to the islands, particularly those
> raising families, (understandably) can't get used to
> dealing with the smaller spaces associated with living on
> a space-hungry island. If, however, you're in a position
> such as myself, coming from a part of the world where
> people live in similarly crowded circumstances, or if you
> are single or don't yet have children, you'll have a much
> easier time adjusting to the smaller spaces and will be
> able to accept not having so much space for the same
> amount of money.
>
> In short, I believe that the perception that Hawaii is so
> much more expensive than the mainland is only correct from
> the point of view of people who are not willing to
> sacrifice the great amount of space they enjoy on the
> mainland and force themselves to pay double or more when
> they get here than what they would have to pay if they
> were willing to make such a sacrifice.
>
> Second,to all the people, whether locals or mainlanders,
> many of them apparently mean-spirited, who are constantly
> griping about ethnic issues and racial slights on this
> chatboard, I will say this: lighten up a bit, and you're
> sure to a much nicer time of it. Doubtless there are a
> lot of people who go through life looking for trouble of
> this sort, and doubtless, in a frequently mean-spirited
> world, they're able to find it. My impression, however,
> is that there is FAR LESS of this sort of trouble in
> Hawaii than anywhere else in the U.S. My daughter,
> although she is half-Chinese, looks far "whiter" than any
> of the other kids in her class, in an elementary school
> where there are only a handful of white kids. She
> certainly doesn't notice that she looks any different from
> the rest of her classmates, comes home with a big smile on
> her face every day, and is overjoyed to be out of the
> crazy, high-pressure study environment of public school in
> Taiwan. She's already picked up the local accent and
> apparently fits right in. The other white kids I notice
> at her school all seem to be just as happy as everyone
> else. Doubtless in high schools you do encounter
> problems, some of them involving ethnic or racial slurs,
> but doesn't this happen everywhere in the American public
> school system? Adolescents can be nasty and groups of
> them will frequently treat poorly anyone who is perceived
> as non-conforming, including when it comes to appearance.
> This is a just an unfortunate part of American youth. My
> suspicion is that the sort of kids who encounter this sort
> of trouble in school here are the sort of kids who would
> encounter this sort of trouble anywhere (and possibly
> administer to this sort of trouble to other kids). And
> I'd like to add that, while I understand that I've only
> been here for a couple of months and likely haven't had
> much occasion to experience certain negative aspects of
> living here, so far I have found strangers and especially
> people doing any sort of public service (grocery clerks,
> bus drivers, etc.) to be far more relaxed and FAR
> FRIENDLIER than most of their counterparts in the frantic
> East Coast area where I grew up.
>
> To conclude, my experience so far as a newcomer has been
> entirely positive, and I would recommend it to other
> teachers or prospective teachers who are looking for a
> change of locale and who would like to make a contribution
> to a part of the U.S. which desperately needs more good
> teachers. The costs here really seem to be exaggerated,
> as do the reports of poor, mistreated haoles.
>
> If other newcomers or prospective newcomers would like to
> contact me for an exchange of info, I'd be happy to hear
> from them!
>
> Best wishes,
> Andy
>
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