02-25-2008, 01:49 PM
I guess everyone sees different things in different places. The drug thing doesn't bother me because I moved here from SF and I will take stoned hippies over cracked out mentally ill people who defecate on the street in front of me while I walk to work any day. I also lived in Berkeley for several years so the white kids with dreads thing is probably below average here compared to what I am used to. I don't worry about getting shot or mugged ever. I rarely lock the door to my home. Those things are amazing changes for me and make me a happier person.
I actually do find a lot of aloha here. I find it again and again when I am in stores and am always surprised by it. Today I was returning some rented supplies and was at White Cap in Hilo and while I was waiting, I was struck by how different the scene was than it would have been in the Bay Area. Nobody was stressed out, the clerk was carrying on a smiling conversation with some of the customers, and there was none of that tension that I pick up on back where I am from. Where I am from, clerks barely look at you, act like you are inconveniencing them, and carry on conversations with other clerks while ringing you up. That's all just one example.
In my 6 weeks here I have met a lot of wonderful new people, but they are primarily people who worked really hard to get here for various reasons. I imagine it is different in your situation in that it was not a huge goal of yours for years to live here.
It isn't paradise here and I don't believe anywhere in the world is, because it is still the world and run by the same general principles and largely limited by human behavior no matter where you are.
It seems like you are really bothered by some things that you could otherwise let go of. I don't smoke pot and have no desire to grow dreads or not work, but if someone else wants to do that and doesn't interfere with my life, then no big deal. There are bigger problems in the world.
I don't really go to the parks and have always kind of thought they were sort of pointless given how there are an infinite number of beautiful places you can drive or hike to pretty easily that are just out in nature. The mosquitos seem to leave me alone too for whatever reason. I actually got MRSA in my first 2 weeks here, but it turned out it was passed from my mom in CA who volunteers in nursing homes. LOL! Took antibiotics for a week and it's gone. No big whoop.
If this isn't the place for you that is ok. If it was the place for everyone it would turn into Oahu, then it would be hell [
] (for me at least). Aloha,
Rob
I actually do find a lot of aloha here. I find it again and again when I am in stores and am always surprised by it. Today I was returning some rented supplies and was at White Cap in Hilo and while I was waiting, I was struck by how different the scene was than it would have been in the Bay Area. Nobody was stressed out, the clerk was carrying on a smiling conversation with some of the customers, and there was none of that tension that I pick up on back where I am from. Where I am from, clerks barely look at you, act like you are inconveniencing them, and carry on conversations with other clerks while ringing you up. That's all just one example.
In my 6 weeks here I have met a lot of wonderful new people, but they are primarily people who worked really hard to get here for various reasons. I imagine it is different in your situation in that it was not a huge goal of yours for years to live here.
It isn't paradise here and I don't believe anywhere in the world is, because it is still the world and run by the same general principles and largely limited by human behavior no matter where you are.
It seems like you are really bothered by some things that you could otherwise let go of. I don't smoke pot and have no desire to grow dreads or not work, but if someone else wants to do that and doesn't interfere with my life, then no big deal. There are bigger problems in the world.
I don't really go to the parks and have always kind of thought they were sort of pointless given how there are an infinite number of beautiful places you can drive or hike to pretty easily that are just out in nature. The mosquitos seem to leave me alone too for whatever reason. I actually got MRSA in my first 2 weeks here, but it turned out it was passed from my mom in CA who volunteers in nursing homes. LOL! Took antibiotics for a week and it's gone. No big whoop.
If this isn't the place for you that is ok. If it was the place for everyone it would turn into Oahu, then it would be hell [
] (for me at least). Aloha,Rob