Hawaii - The First Couple Weeks

Two weeks on the isles of aloha and I still don't have a damn job, so I have the time to turn out a little blog about the moving experience.

But what to say? It's all happened so fast I feel like I should just sum it up with, "BAM! We're here." But I won't.

We arrived sometime around noon on October 16th after a flight that was notable only in that it cost over $300 to check our bags. Luckily we expected that, and it was still cheaper than shipping all that stuff by quite the large margin so I'm not complaining. After a short cab ride we arrived at our one-star hotel, the Continental Surf. After another short cab ride to an ATM, I was able to pay the man.

It took us less than a week to find and get into our new apartment, turning our nearly $1000 hotel bill into a mere $300-ish after getting the remaining time refunded. Awesome.

Apartment hunting here is NOT like it is on the mainland (or at least the near-Seattle part of the mainland that I'm used to). On the mainland, you see an apartment building, you go into the manager's office and ask what's available and how much it costs. Here most apartments are privately owned. I'm talking about individual units, not buildings. Most of the buildings don't even have a manager's office, and many don't have a lobby that you can get into without being a resident. So we spent hours walking around, calling the numbers on every For Rent sign we saw (and, accidentaly, one For Sale). Most of these calls got us voice mail. No messages we left ever got us a call back. Many calls got us a person who told us that they would call us back "When I decide on a time to show the apartment." They never called back either. We did make one call based on an internet ad for a place that was answered by a live human who told us we could come see the unit. When we got there he told us that it could only be rented out to a single occupant.

The other way we found to find numbers to call was from bulletin boards. Some buildings have bulletin boards you can actually get to without being a tenant, and they seem to always have names and numbers pinned to them advertising units for rent. One such building is the Hawaiian Monarch. http://www.hawaiianmonarchhotels.com/

As we stood near the bulletin board, Suzi gearing up to start making calls to the many numbers there, a man walked by and told us that if we were looking for a place, he could help us out. Turns out that a small, family-run company has an office in the building, and they handle renting out condos on behalf of the owners. The units they showed us were at the high end of what we thought we'd be willing to pay, so we thanked them and went back to the hotel to think about it for a day. After so many calls to super cheap ads that bore no fruit, we decided to take a unit at the Monarch. We were given the option to lease it for as little as one month (at a slightly higher rate), but we went for a six month lease because we want to have the whole housing question settled for a while so I can focus on getting work and we can both get to know our new city without having to worry about finding another place in a few weeks.

So we have a place. Now I'm gonna tell you about the thing that sucks more than apartment buildings not having offices: "Fully Furnished".

Apparently, nearly every apartment or condo in Honolulu comes "Fully Furnished", something we were not at all familiar with from the mainland. But what does that mean? Well, it's not just a dresser and chair. It's those, and the bed, and the other dresser, the other chair, the tv, the microwave, the toaster oven, mirrors, framed art, and in the case of our maybe-as-much-as-300-square-feet unit, mismatched silverware for 10. Oh, and beach mats, some hand towels, various tupperware, pots and pans (some of which were probably not washed before the previous tenant left), and enough bowls for 2, plates for 4, and cups for more than that.

I guess my point about "fully furnished" is that it sucks. You end up with the furniture somebody else thought was a good idea, and you can't Goodwill any of it. And with Suzi and I leaning toward minimalism with a fondness for open space, we find it ree-damn-diculous how much crap people seem to think they need in such a small space. The unit we chose was not the worst by any stretch, else we wouldn't have chosen it. After some rearranging we actually have enough floor space to sleep 3-4 (though the floor is wall to wall tile, not so great for sleeping) or for me to work out. Yes, I've begun making sweet love to my kettlebell again. The good news is that the closet in the unit is big enough to hold the TV and the big goofy chair with enough room left over to hang what needs to be hung and the cabinet the TV used to sit in is big enough to hold the rest of the crap we don't want and won't use. Yeah, we banished the telly even though cable is an included amenity. The microwave is sitting in that cabinet with a bellyful of toaster.

Once over the fullness of our furnishings, we were able to enjoy the good (read: great) points of our place: It is very bright. With white walls, white tile floors, a big mirror, and a huge window, we have a lot of light during the day. Did I mention we're on the 37th floor? We get no tree or building shadows to block our sun, but the light isn't direct enough to broil us. Our view is fantastic. We can see the ocean, the city, the mountains, and the Ala Wai canal; contaminated beyond swimability for reasons we do not yet know, but it's pretty and has kayakers on it daily. And let's not forget the location. It's a short walk from here to both Ala Moana beach and Waikiki beach as well as the huge Ala Moana shopping center and (for unemployed folks like me) Wal-Mart. We don't miss having a car. At all.

I miss having a job though. We've been eating cheap. Ramen, hot dogs, and Wal-Mart brand SPAM-like meat product. That last is a new discovery, we haven't tried it just yet... maybe tonight.

Oh! One of our favorite discoveries the the Wailana Coffee House! It's a 24-hour restaurant with good food at prices that are cheaper than what we used to pay on the mainland. Two eggs, two strips of bacon, and all-you-can-eat pancakes for $5.75 is enough to make me fall in love. The menu is expansive, with steaks, sandwiches, seafood (including a fresh catch of the day), local fare, a salad bar... I don't mean to sound like they paid me to advertise, but I'm stoked to have a place so close (about 2 blocks) open 24 hours with food I like at prices I can afford once in a while even when I'm a bum. Enough with the restaurant gush though.

On the job front, I'm hopeful for a couple of positions I applied for at Whole Foods earlier this week (the positions still aren't filled), but I've not been called about anything. Next week I'll need to start hitting temp agencies. There's a Labor Ready nearby. Might put in at the other local grocery stores as well. My next blog will probably come when I get hired.

Aloha, bitches!