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Aloha! (I'm catching on already )
I am a 20 year old male and will be moving to Oahu on the Southern (leeward side?) towards the end of this month. I will be coming with about 7,000 dollars and a suitcase + carryon.. I have absolutely no set in stone arrangements, i have just been reading this forum A LOT of doing A LOT of googleing.
The reason i picked the Souther side of Oahu out of all the other islands is because i am an insurance agent and it is the best fit for work/play/me. I am currently a Nationwide Insurance agent, unfortunately Nationwide does not do business in Hawaii; so i will have to find a new company.
My plan is to land in Oahu and just hit the ground running to find a place to live and also stop in any/all the insurance agencies i can to look for work. In the meantime i am starting to send out my resume tonight so HOPEFULLY i have some interviews lined up. If not, no big deal, I will find work anyways
Coming from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania i have a decent bit of heavy clothes and i really don't know what to bring.. I'm definitely bringing my light short sleeve dress shirts, all my gym shorts/athletic pants, t-shirts, JEANS??, SUNSCREEN, air mattress until i buy a bed and all my daily living stuff. Any suggestions?
Also, i'm thinking i will just buy a moped/scooter to get around versus buying a car. Would this be practical for me given my profession and the rain?
I know i typed a lot but i'm really just trying to get a good idea of what to do. I've read a ton of posts here and you all seem very helpful so i figured i'd try my luck!
OH! and if anyone has any insurance connections or has any insurance agencies you think i should try i would greatly appreciate that!
It sounds like a plan. Breaking into the local market is a little tough, like any place its about networking. The moped would work. I would suggest Quik Fix Cycles. Jeans are good. Get good rain gear the type that breathes. Good luck man.
I'm a very outgoing person and i can talk to anyone so the networking won't be a problem, just got to get the ball rolling
Thank you very much for you input!
Get a bus pass and learn the routes - you don't want to show up to appointments all sweaty or soaked from the rain. You also can't navigate all parts of the island on a moped as they aren't allowed on the highways.
It sounds like a plan. Breaking into the local market is a little tough, like any place its about networking. The moped would work. I would suggest Quik Fix Cycles. Jeans are good. Get good rain gear the type that breathes. Good luck man.
It still says no mopeds on highways, although it calls it "interstate highways". Even though they don't go interstate, I think H1, H2 and H3 are still highways and mopeds still can't go on them. It also matters which sort of "highway" you mean. Kamehameha "highway" is more of a city street than a highway and mopeds can go there.
Back to the OP, between a moped and a monthly bus pass you should have transportation covered. Quik Fix is a good place to get mopeds, they are over between the airport and Waikiki, I think.
Folks don't use the mainland compass directions much on an island. "The leeward side" is much more used than any compass direction. Occasionally surfers will mention which shore by compass direction, but for in town, those directions don't mean much. "Mauka" is "towards the mountains" and "makai" is "towards the ocean" for when folks give you directions. The rest of them are usually covered by mentioning a big landmark of some type. Islands are round and the streets aren't straight so one street can go through most of the mainland compass directions depending where you are on the street.
Folks will call that general area "town", "downtown" or "town side" and "Honolulu". Although "Honolulu" can also be most of the island since it's hard to tell one neighborhood from another because they are all directly next to each other.
Get a big lock for your moped and keep it locked at all times. Lock it to something that it can not be lifted off of. Lock the frame to something immovable, not just the front tire or you may come back and find a tire locked to a post and nothing else. Also get a scruffy moped or make it look scruffy and it's less likely to get stolen. Friend of mine would get a new moped and cover it with duct tape right away to make it look all busted up. His generally didn't get stolen. Another friend always tried to keep his shiny and really nice and he'd lose them fairly frequently. Petty theft, especially from newcomers, is quite rampant on the islands, especially the densely populated ones such as Oahu.
For clothing, bring natural fiber clothes. If it is 100% cotton, linen or silk, it will be comfortable. If it is 100% polyester, throw it away. As for style, you may find you won't be wearing your dress shirts much at all. Forget ties, no need to bring any of those. Maybe you could bring one to sneer at, but that would probably be the only use you'd have for it. Business folks on Oahu wear slacks and Aloha shirts to work.
Haven't you been watching the new Hawaii 5-0? Danno wears "mainland" clothes, so don't look at him as a reference. Here's a picture - the short guy in the aloha shirt is our state governor and he's wearing more or less Hawaii's standard business attire. Hawaii Five-0 cast with Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie – Alex O'Loughlin Online
R.I.P., and FYI after going thru all your money on motels and food for the first few weeks, you can pitch a tent on the sidewalk at King & Isenberg with the other homeless broke people out there.
All jokes aside, selling insurance in Hawaii sounds difficult. We tend to get services from friends or friends of friends. Understand that most people born n raised here are only 2 - 3 degrees separation from each other. So why would I trust getting services from an outsider, someone who has no roots here?
Roots = trust in any island or rural community.
People always talk about "making do" with mopeds or catching the bus. No words can explain the gridlock NOT on the Highways but ON the localized streets. Trying to navigate the grid in the generalized town area is rediculous, midday can take you 15 minutes just to cross 5 blocks.
A moped is doable if you have an office and desk where your clients would come to see you, but if you have to go TO your clients home or place of business, driving around in a moped is rather silly, and near impossible by bus.
Sometimes I think these threads are started by someone putting us on - I mean, come on - a 20 year old insurance salesperson without a place to live, no transportation, no contacts, and a whopping $7,000 - but amusing anyway I suppose.
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