Aloha!
Welcome to my blog! For those of you that don’t know, I will
be moving to Hawaii in the very near future to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical
Psychology at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, HI.
Yeah. That’s right.
Hawaii...
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| Just a few pictures I took during my visit in March. |
Although I have been preparing for this move since the end of March, I still stop mid-thought to remind myself that this is
actually happening. I’m moving to Hawaii. I’m going to LIVE in Hawaii. I’m actually going to be
living on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. These thoughts tend to
cycle through my mind every now and then, and I still have a hard time
processing it all. I’m reminded of how special and exciting this opportunity
is, and I’m thankful to have the support needed to make such a huge move like
this. I never once thought in my life that I would end up living in a place
like Hawaii. I hardly even thought I would visit!
I will be living there for approximately three to four years
while I complete my program. After completing my didactics, clinical hours, and
dissertation, I will then return to the mainland (“mainland…” So weird.) for my internship and then finally my postdoc. I already find myself
wondering what it will be like to return to the mainland after living in Hawaii
for so long. What if I end up in some kind of horrible tundra climate? Which
for me, and most people from south Texas, is anything north of the Mason-Dixon
line…
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself with those types of
questions.
I knew as soon as I received notice of my acceptance to this
program that I wanted to create a blog that would not only document my
experiences of living in such a unique place, but also keep everyone on the
mainland updated with my whereabouts and well-being. I hope to update this blog
regularly, but I would rather not give myself a specific number of post times
each month or week, as I am about to enter the Land of Deadlines and 15-Hour Work
Days that is a doctoral program. I decided to name this blog “Mana’o” which is
the Hawaiian word for thought, idea, or mind (as well as a number of other
things), which I thought was a great description of the content of this blog as
well as my field of clinical psychology.
I will be leaving tomorrow morning for Oahu, and this past
week has been full of last minute preparations and tying up loose ends. I
thought for my first entry in this blog, I could explain a little about the
process of moving to Hawaii. And boy is it a process. I, like most people, had
no idea what moving would exactly entail.
Moving to Missouri for my masters program was simple. I
found an apartment a few months in advance, packed my car up, and made the
12-hour drive out of Texas. Moving to Hawaii is not so simple. I have had to
get new health insurance, new car insurance, a new bank account with a Hawaiian
bank (there are no national banks there!), and not to mention attempting to pack
all of my belongings into a just few suitcases.
I also had a few more bureaucratic hoops to jump through than some
people making the move, because I decided to ship my vehicle to Honolulu. Shipping
your car is definitely more intensive than shipping a package in the mail. There
was a lot of paperwork involved for them to pick it up, and once it is on the
island, I have to get it inspected and registered in the state of Hawaii, which
means I unfortunately have to give up my Texas license plates. Additionally, I will have to
get a Hawaiian driver’s license…
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| Just call me McLovin. (My parents will not understand this joke.) |
It was about an equally sized financial decision to either ship my car or sell it and purchase or lease a new vehicle on the island. I figured it
would be better to have a car that I am already familiar with on the island and
not have to worry about purchasing or leasing a new car along with everything
else involved in the move. They picked my car up on July 17th and we
just got word that it will be arriving in Honolulu on August 6th. They even came right to our house to pick it up on one of those huge car
transport 18 wheelers. They transport it to Los Angeles, and then it gets put on one of
those huge cargo ships. It is pretty strange to think that my car is somewhere
in the middle of the Pacific ocean right now.
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| I always hate driving behind these things... |
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| Hopefully it is ok hanging off the back end like this! |
Another thing that is very different from anywhere else I
have lived in the process of finding an apartment. The turn around for
apartments in Honolulu is extremely fast. Typically apartments are shown and
leased out within days of their initial posting. I am sure it is similar in other large cities. However,
this means that if you are arriving on the island from the mainland, you are
essentially homeless until you find a place, which could turn into quite a
stressful situation if you are living on someone’s couch or in a hotel. I will
be living with another girl in my program, and she happened to arrive on the
island 5 days before me. She has already found a great apartment for us to live
in, and that is such a relief! She busted her butt for three days looking at apartments, but it just goes to show how quickly the housing market moves.
And finally – the packing. A lot of people have asked me
about this when I told them that I’m moving to Hawaii. I’m not shipping
anything, because the price to ship things to Hawaii (besides a car in my case)
strongly outweighs the price to simply purchase things on the island. My mom is traveling with me to Oahu to help
me get settled in, and between the two of us we are allowed to take 4 checked
bags. I am amazed at the amount of things I have been able to fit into these
bags. I have been able to take all of the clothes I wanted to bring, plus a few
nonessential kitchen items (my pink Keurig, for one). I guess the fact that I
have to pack zero bulky winter clothes really cuts down on the space issue.
After surviving this past hellacious winter in Missouri, I am looking forward
to being able to wear shorts and flip flops all year round.
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| Kramer wants to go with me. |
All in all, it has definitely been an intensive and
stressful process getting everything ready for the move. However, the hard part
is over now and we are just ready to get there! Although I will miss many
things while I’m in Hawaii (like my cat, Kramer!), I am so looking forward to
this new adventure. I know it will change me and I still can’t believe I have
this amazing opportunity. I will be sad to leave Texas, but thankfully my
cousin gave me this before I left:
Look for my next update, which will be all about the hopefully smooth process of traveling to
Hawaii and getting settled in my new apartment!
Aloha,
Emily
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