Lotte during her internship in amazing Hawaii!

Lotte on Hawaii: “Swimming with sharks was one of the best experiences!”

I’m interning at a Hawaiian bikini brand that has its main office in Honolulu. Together with the marketing manager of Hawaii, I help wherever needed. Currently I’m doing lots of social media planning. But we also plan things like sales, events, pop up stores and photoshoots.

Super long flight

The flight from Amsterdam to Honolulu was really long. Because of delays I even had to stay in Houston for a night. When I flew to Honolulu from Houston I had a good spot next to the window. When we were close to Hawaii, the stewardess began telling us all about the different islands and what we could see from the window at that moment! That was a lot of fun! The first time I saw Waikiki Beach, it was from the plane.

Getting off the plane, I immediately noticed the heat. The airport was just a regular airport, nothing Hawaiian about it.

Enjoying the weather

On Hawaii it’s ALWAYS summer! And the beach is never far away. You can basically go to the beach every day and enjoy the weather. Except for the beach, there are so many other things you can do. There are mountains, craters, rainforests, everything! Plus, there are many hikes to go on so you’ll never be bored.

I never really feel homesick. I speak with everyone at home through Facetime and Whatsapp lots. I made enough friends, the weather is amazing and I love going outside every day and being able to do things.

A regular internship day on Hawaii

At work I have so many different tasks! Sometimes we (the marketing manager and I) have to drive to all our shops on the island to deliver material or take pictures. Then it’s a roadtrip kinda day. But on many days I’m working at the office, too, managing the social media schedule or an upcoming event. After work I often go to the beach to watch the sunset for example, and have a BBQ with friends.

I learned a lot during my internship. While I was here we set up a new store on Big Island for the first time and this was an experience that taught me lots. I definitely recommend students to go abroad, somewhere you don’t know anyone and nobody speaks your language. I went to Hawaii all by myself and I think this is pretty impressive. I now know I can handle pretty much everything easily, on my own.

Must-dos

I love going to the beach! There are so many beautiful beaches here… I can recommend to everyone to go check out the West Coast. Huge beaches and a lot quieter than North Shore or Waikiki.

I like to go hiking too! There are many different hiking trails to do. I think the Haiku Stairs (Stairway to Heaven) was the most beautiful trail I’ve ever walked!

Everyone’s a mix

Before I moved here, I didn’t realise there are so many Asians on Hawaii. There are especially many people from Japan, who live here or are on holiday here. On Oahu, there aren’t many real Hawaiians left, everyone’s a mix of something. I made many friends from all kinds of different countries! I have American friends, Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese and French friends. It’s really nice to also hang out with actual Hawaiians and learn words from their language!

Hawaiians in 3 words:

Beachy, family oriented and tan! The real Hawaiians are on the beach often, they just park their mega trucks in the sand and set up big party tents to chill with family for the entire day. Appearance wise, Hawaiians are beautifully tan! You immediately notice the difference between tourists and someone who’s lived here for a while.

Food

Poke, a Hawaiian raw fish dish, is something I can’t handle. I don’t like raw fish and these are huge cubes of raw fish you can pretty much get anywhere here.

Hawaii = living outdoors

Hawaii is not a party place! If you love partying and clubbing, this is not the best place to move to. You have to love the outdoors and enjoy nature on Hawaii, because there is so much to see that’s absolutely stunning! It’s almost too bad if you decide to stay indoors for a day when you’re here.

Another tip: swimming with sharks at North Shore. Lots of different companies offer to do this, but I recommend doing it at One Ocean Diving. You can even go in without a cage and swim around calmly. I swam with 22 sharks and it was one of the best experiences on Hawaii. One Ocean Diving is a team of biologists who study the behaviour of sharks to protect them against extinction.

I’m almost done with my internships but I’m going to stay here for another month. In that month I want to see and do many things. I’ve made a to do list including, for example, swimming with dolphins, so that’s what I’ll be doing this month!