Paddy's Market

Plans can be changed at an instance without any question or concern. This happened today, which was to be Sorry Day, but plans were changed at the last minute and as a teacher you need to be able to accommodate the changes and go on. Instead of doing the events of Sorry Day our class decided to go to the National Maritime Museum, but as we were walking there our last minute change of plans landed us at Paddy’s Market a large market of many different objects and shops. Walking through the lower level of the market, I noticed there were a lot of vendors that had the same items of Sydney souvenirs at really cheap prices compared to the souvenir shops on Pitt and George Street. Many of the vendors working were very approachable and willing to get your business by looking you in the eye and talking to you. But the ones who were doing this wanted to give a massage, no thank you. Some of the other vendors would be reading a book if there were no customers but once someone’s eye caught their table they shot up like a bullet to watch them closely. This made me feel a little uneasy, that the vendors did not trust those walking around looking at their items or that they were so bored they wanted to try and make a quick sale. Some of the vendors’ items reminded me of kiosks that I see in the mall; for example the mobile phone (cell phone) accessories that were being sold throughout the market. I was not aware that other people throughout the world liked to “bling out” or “add pizzazz” to their phones, this is something that I do not do at all so to see all the different options was interesting.

The part of the market that really struck me was the fruit and vegetable stands. The stands reminded me of a farmer’s market back home, where you take your reusable bag and fill it with all fresh and sometimes organic fruits and vegetables. All of the fruits that were being sold at the market today were interesting to see because they are all autumn fruits that are not being sold fresh in the United States at the present moment. It was also interesting to hear all the vendor workers shouting to have customers try the food before they purchase it. This would make it easier for me to see which produce I might want to purchase over another stand, because all of the prices throughout were the same or around the same. Some of the foods that were being sold I had never heard of like the sweet peppers they were selling were called capsicum (this is what I think it was called). The different vendors who were selling tomatoes, but when it came to grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes they were already prepackaged. This was quite interesting to me because I do not see how much harder it would be for a vendor to grow some tomatoes at a smaller size. I also found it interesting to see the labels of what food was shown in more than one language.