Post #204587 by T_lifehater on Mon, Dec 26, 2005 6:30 PM

I've lived in Hawaii for the past ten years. I spent time here once or twice a year for the ten years prior. From what I've seen there are a couple types of people that come here. There are people that move here and (either immediately or eventually) assimilate and adopt some or all of the local idiosyncracies and basically are open minded and can roll with stuff and accept when things dont work quite the same as on the mainland and are willing to make concessions (I dont consider these things concessions really, but for lack of a better word...) these people usually staick around.

Then there are the people that try to bring their world here and expect things to work "the way they did back home" and they want to bring us all up to speed on the right way to do things. They usually last about a year or two. Fun to watch sometimes, but a pain in the ass to do business with.

The biggest thing to remember is that the outer islands are essentially a minor outlying province. Things are a little off but pretty great. Our clocks run slower and our lunches tend to be longer and when the surf is up dont be surprised if half your crew doesn't show up til noon. (Best solution for that one is to be in the water before them, get an hour of board time in and then say "well, it's getting kind of blown out- we may as well go to work")

And my advice to anyone who wants to do the outer island thing is maybe think about skipping kona- it's really getting filled in fast. I'd say the hamakua side or South Point, Naalehu area- but the growth is even reaching out there. Molokaie, perhaps.

Aloha and good luck- Toby