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Well, to start off, something about me I guess, since all opinions on everything is based on biases and experiences. I am a mainlander, the majority of my life has been on the mainland (it's a short life so far, about 10 years out of 17). I do consider myself an international person though, I have had the great pleasure and opportunity to live in 4 different places in 3 different countries and 3 different continents. I was born in Hong Kong and spent my first three years there, my mom's side of the family lives there and we visit them often. My dad got terminally sick while in Hong Kong and he wanted to move back to around where he grew up, which was Delaware. I am multi-racial, half white, half Chinese (but I got all the "white" genes and I have very little Asian characteristics, so I've been classed as Caucasian all my life). I spent six years in very suburban Delaware, where I spent my early childhood. After that we moved to a suburb of Perth, Australia, where I spent four years of my "mid" childhood. I disliked the place I have to say... but anyway, after Perth, we moved back to the U.S. to Chicago (or a suburb so close and similar I'm just going to call it Chicago).
The reason why I gave a very basic intro to my early and so far short life story is because I'm at the age where I plan the next step. I'm looking for college. I don't know if it is the right outlook on life but I'm looking for a place that is different from what I've been used to, yet close enough to bear with for at least 4 years. Since I have been all over the world I am very good with integrating into new places. I simply love a "different" experience. And so, I looked at Hawaii (also because I want to study Marine Biology, don't talk to me about job outlooks, I'm not looking for financial security, I'm looking for life experiences. I'd have more fun living on the streets than going back to stereotypical suburban life, I'm still young so I want to cherish my youthful outlook on life, regardless of whether or not it will stick with me).
As I stated, I want to avoid suburban life, I want city life. I'm young and full of energy, and only a city can contain it. So as far as my Hawaii search I'm only looking at Honolulu. I'm interested in UH Manoa, and HPU. I had read the forums here, and hear a lot of hate about Hawaii and how most mainlanders don't like it (by the looks of these forums, neither do the locals...), but that didn't stop me. I don't look at myself as a mainlander, it's only where I live. I'm an international person. So I decided to take a trip down to Honolulu. We have some family friends down there so we stayed at Pearl City with them. It was a great thing as a hotel in Waikiki probably doesn't show "real" hawaiian life.
So finally my real post begins here (the irony). Actually, another disclaimer, I know 100% that a five day "vacation" doesn't show the full story, but it showed a part at least.
I personally loved it. First impression was on the plane, it was the craziest "thing," after 5 hours of flying over the endless pacific (which I love, so don't give me the "flights are long" thing, try a 3 hour drive to JFK and a 19 hour flight to Hong Kong...), all of a sudden an island appeared. Looking out a window, the island had a city and was clustered with human activity. That right there began my optimistic outlook on the island, even though everything I heard up to that time was pretty bad.... And the mountains, they are just stunning, I love mountains and hate the flat lands of Chicago (love the hilly terrain of Hong Kong). Next up was the driving, ok sure the roads can get cluttered sometimes, but it didn't seem that much worse than the highways leading to downtown Chicago, nor the Cross Harbor Tunnel in Hong Kong... The drivers were nice, a very rare thing here in road rage Chicago. Being new to the island and relying on a GPS, we had to slow down a lot to look for our destinations. If we did that in Chicago, we'd either get honked at, sworn at, or rear ended by a pregnant woman texting on her cell phone going 45 miles per hour... (it's happened before...). The schools were decent, nothing too special. I know about the budget cuts and everything, but guess what, it's everywhere, it's daily news here in Chicago about the Illinois public schools...
Next up, the homeless and drug addicts. There is nothing more city-like than the homeless and drug addicts. Stuff doesn't feel right unless they are there. Evanston (suburb where I live now) has it's own bad side of town, completely crime ridden, houses falling apart, shootings all the time. But every city worth mentioning contains these sort of things. With the help of our capitalist society, there can't be rich without the poor. Go big or go home is very true, at least from what I've seen throughout the world. I can deal with these guys. I'm no idiot, if a gun is held to my head I will give up my at maximum 20 bucks I have in my wallet. I'm not going to carry a gold medallion every where I go. I pride myself on not being materialistic. Sure I may **** my pants but I'm probably more likely to get killed by a drunk driver than a homeless bum or meth head. And drunk drivers are everywhere. But I will admit, there were quite a lot of them hanging around all over the city, including Waikiki.
As for housing, I will be bias here as I will be a college student. I have no plans on buying a house, and I have no plans on being rich, hence my interest in Marine Biology (in case you didn't know, bad job outlook, don't get paid very much, but I love learning and getting involved in it). So a dorm or a studio apartment is just fine for me. I'm blessed with a decent brain and had a hardworking father who had enough savings to send me to college by the time he died when I was only at the age of three. I don't want to sound stingy or anything, but money won't be the biggest deal for me. I buy small, work part time, and "borrow without returning" money from my mom. Either way, it's a hell of a lot less than what my sister pays to go to college and live in DC (Beijing next year...).
Surprising to me, the city had a night life, at Waikiki. Tourists are everywhere, probably 95% of the people at the Waikiki nightlife, but along with tourists comes endless pockets, with endless pockets comes both glamor, and street performers/con artists looking for some cash. And there is the perfect combination for nightlife. Reminded me a little bit of Las Vegas because of all the street performers and tourists.
To be honest, I wanted to be called a Haole at least once. I look white, and I lived in suburban America. I've seen a black kid get beaten up at my school in delaware because he was black (a wide awakening into the world of race, which I had not known then with my childhood innocence). Call me crazy, but I want to know what it's like to be the hated minority. I love being the minority when I visit Hong Kong, its just a completely different experience that is 100% noticeable. But, I was never treated as a minority in Hawaii, maybe it'll happen when I live there. But everyone's Asian, there are very little white people, a few natives, but the majority of the natives I saw was out in the North Shore and somewhat on the Windward side (Kaneohe). Asians keep to themselves, and from what I hear, as long as I accept the natives and their culture (which I plan on doing regardless), it shouldn't be too bad.
Lastly, the beaches and coral. They are beautiful, end of story.
So there's my outlook on Oahu and Honolulu from what I saw in five days. I loved it. Most of the negatives stated here are not always negatives. Regardless if it is good or bad it is an experience, and that's what counts in life, at least for me. I loved it there, and hopefully will get accepted. A 3.7 GPA and all honors/AP classes should help me out I'm pretty sure. Any college students there, feel free to chip in.
Thanks for reading the unecessarily long post. If you made it this far, you're a rare kind in the forum world. Since you've done so much already, please comment.
Great post! I'm not an expert having never lived there. But I'm a haole who has lived in Asia for over 10 years, and have visited Honolulu a few times, including once time for a month.
I think as a college student, Hawaii would be pretty amazing. I've seen student housing to be much more affordable as well.
The homeless people. I'm use to them from living in other U.S. cities and extensive travels in South America/Southeast Asia. Personally, I found the homeless in Oahu to be so harmless and just pleasant people. When I lived in San Francisco for a year, the homeless would take a bee-line directly for the non-homeless looking guy, and hit you up, pretty much constantly. That didn't happen in Oahu, although they were certainly present. I sat down at a bench in Waikiki next to a homeless guy, and he quickly excused himself and left. Had I been anywhere else, the guy would have tried to separate a little of my money from me. I actually felt more compassion and sympathy for homeless while there, as they seemed so nice compared to my general experiences elsewhere with city homeless.
As to the Hawaii racism. I spent a month there, and felt absolutely fine to me. Felt like being in Asia actually. I mean, even in Asia, occassionally you'll get something, but I felt it's so seldom and so minor, etc. However, I know PLENTY of white expats over here in Asia, who seem to encounter racism everytime they step out their door. So, I really have a hard time deciphering what is valid or not, and what is a person's interpretation. What I mean is, if a fellow foreigner is complaining about racism, is it just some incident that an asian person did that if I a white person did the same, they'd just be considered a 'jerk', but since he's not white, he's considered 'racist'. Don't know. Anyways, I account most 'racist stories' to actually being 'jerk stories', if there wasn't any skin differnence in there to give it another name. Jerk stories happen all the time everywhere to everyone anyways generally of the same skin colors.
The other thing. When I visited Honolulu for a month, I rented an apartment on Nuuana Avenue. I took the bus everywhere and was trying to get a feel for what it would be like to be a haole in Honolulu. Anyways, I was standing at a bus stop next to an Asian guy. A Hawaiian guy came up and started drilling the Asian guy, 'why did you move to Hawaii?', etc. He somehow picked out the guy wasn't a local. Meanwhile, I'm the white guy just standing their reading a book waiting for the bus. The asian guy couldn't speak English very well either. It was memorable because you mostly see Asian everywhere in Oahu, and you see few Hawaiian-looking people. But here this Hawaiian-looking guy was giving the 5th degree to some Asian guy, while myself the haole was comfortably standing there 2 feet away. (That was the closest 'racist' experience I saw, although you could almost count it as more of a 'jerk' story).
By the way, most people I met in Hawaii were very pleasant and very comfortable to be around!
Anyways...enjoy Honolulu...hoping to hear more from you as you make your move there!
The gist: Good luck. It sounds like you have a good attitude, and the resources to succeed- so sweet! I will be attending the UH in Hilo, but had decided to buy land in Hawai'i after accidentally going there for 4 days! I've been back lots since, and I love it. You don't need to spend too much time in a place to know if you are going to like it- sometimes, places click. And I love how international it is! It feels much more like a foreign country that the US (especially in parts of the Big Island) and I dig it. Lots of Asian and Pacific Influence; my neighbors on the left are from Panama,Colombia, Mexico and Costa Rica. To the right is an old couple from Taiwan. I'm going to have to brush up on some languages (not Spanish!), but I love it!
Location: Was in Western New York but now in Hilo Hawaii
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Aloha,
How do I begin? lets start with your assessment of the posts on this thread are correct the best that I have seen so far. That said now comes the hard part... When picking a collage to further or begin your career you have a choice. 1) to pick the best collage in the field you have chosen. 2) to have the most fun while you go to school. Now this is where the parent in me comes out! If I was your Dad you get #1 without a choice period! No questions! But Iʻm just a guy on a blog so ignore that. So if you want to do 1 or 2 your choice if you want to choose 1.5 then you can have the best or let me say just under the best do that its your choice. What ever you choose it sounds like you will do great you have the self confidence to anything you want to and the life experience to handle anything that you run into. The only advice I can give you other than Dad advice its to stop writing books until your thesis.
Location: Was in Western New York but now in Hilo Hawaii
1,234 posts, read 4,589,484 times
Reputation: 454
Quote:
Originally Posted by alaskangrown
I just left a huge message, and it was deleted!
The gist: Good luck. It sounds like you have a good attitude, and the resources to succeed- so sweet! I will be attending the UH in Hilo, but had decided to buy land in Hawai'i after accidentally going there for 4 days! I've been back lots since, and I love it. You don't need to spend too much time in a place to know if you are going to like it- sometimes, places click. And I love how international it is! It feels much more like a foreign country that the US (especially in parts of the Big Island) and I dig it. Lots of Asian and Pacific Influence; my neighbors on the left are from Panama,Colombia, Mexico and Costa Rica. To the right is an old couple from Taiwan. I'm going to have to brush up on some languages (not Spanish!), but I love it!
I'm also planning on transferring to UH, but Manoa. I also dislike suburbs very much and prefer to choose Honolulu. I felt much of the same way about what I saw on Hawaii and I can't wait to start living there.
I wonder what prices of studio apartments are and whether I can find a job in my field (Web programming, Web Marketing) there though.
I'm also planning on transferring to UH, but Manoa. I also dislike suburbs very much and prefer to choose Honolulu. I felt much of the same way about what I saw on Hawaii and I can't wait to start living there.
I wonder what prices of studio apartments are and whether I can find a job in my field (Web programming, Web Marketing) there though.
Does anyone know what things are like?
Manoa is a neighbourhood of Honolulu, not a suburb. Nonetheless it is a residential neighbourhood so it can be seen as a suburb... The University is right off of H-1, and only a couple miles from Waikiki and a couple more from Downtown. It's actually a very nice location. Unless I misread your post and you already knew all that.
Both UHM (and UHH I think) have good Marine Biology programs, as well as HPU. For someone that is interested in reefs and tropical marine "stuff" it doesn't get much better than a Pacific Island surrounded by reefs.
Manoa is a neighbourhood of Honolulu, not a suburb. Nonetheless it is a residential neighbourhood so it can be seen as a suburb... The University is right off of H-1, and only a couple miles from Waikiki and a couple more from Downtown. It's actually a very nice location. Unless I misread your post and you already knew all that.
Both UHM (and UHH I think) have good Marine Biology programs, as well as HPU. For someone that is interested in reefs and tropical marine "stuff" it doesn't get much better than a Pacific Island surrounded by reefs.
Thanks for the compliments and input everyone.
yes, i did know all this. my question is to do with the prices of studios in that area and whether web programming and web marketing jobs can be found over there...
The Marine Science programs offered at UH are really awesome
How about HPU? I met with the Dean of Marine Sciences of both schools, and they both seem like very good programs. HPU seems a little more general though, but UH is riddled with budget cuts which might force them to become more general too.
I'm at a loss at which college to go to. One's a small one in the mountains on the Windward side (where the science classes and dorms are anyway), ones a larger more traditional college near the heart of Honolulu.
I like the old, traditional, bigger feeling of UHM and the smaller, newer, modern feeling of HPU equally... So I'm probably gonna pick based on acceptance, tuition, and most importantly Marine Science program... So any information on which one's "better" would be highly appreciated.
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