Farmers Market

Ashley Bruce

Blog 4

2 March 2013

Farmers Market

            It was around nine thirty in the morning when I woke up with a chilly brisk air seeping through my windows and sun peeking in from the cracks. I stretched my muscles to awaken my body, as everyone else was awakening as well. We decided to all go to the farmers market that takes place one block away from our apartment. The famers market is a fantastic source for us to get fresh in season local foods. In baskets, lined up on the streets for what seemed like miles were all filled up with local cheeses, meaty pies, fresh fruits, pastries, flowers, loafs of bread, and even fresh vegetables with mud still smeared on them as if the man behind the table literally just freshly picked them. As soon as we walked out our door onto our street, I could hear the voices of the vendors saying “Ella” which in Greek means come. As I was walking past all of the stands all I could hear were the vendors and customers bagging foods into plastic bags. It’s fascinating and very fortunate to get to experience all types of fresh foods and different things these people sold because we don’t have things like this back where I live. I was very overwhelmed with how many different options, but I ended up buying fresh strawberries, pineapples, bananas, oranges, and flowers for our apartment. What a better way for us to spend our Saturday morning! After coming home from the farmers market I washed all of my fruit off and decided to cut them up and make a fruit salad. As I was cutting all of the colorful fruits up the juices of the fruits would pour out all over my cutting board. I couldn’t help but chop a piece, eat a piece. Each different piece of fruit would burst with flavor in my mouth. By the time I was done cutting up all of the fruits, I was full so I wrapped it up and put it in the fridge for later.

            After taking a non-peaceful nap due to all of the cars and mopeds passing my apartment, I decided to get up and go shopping. After being here for a month already I feel like I have worn all my clothes a million times and I am sick of wearing the same things over and over again! As we walked there and back I feel like I am getting more used to seeing the homeless people on the main streets, but on the weekends I feel as if there are greater amounts of homeless people and their appearance is much worse. It’s actually kind of sad in a way. Today I saw a lot of burn victims without a few limbs begging me for money, and the worse ones are when the two parents are holding their child begging for money. In a way, I feel as if the homeless with children are showing off their kids to collect money. To me this is very sad, but I know with having dedicated parks for heroin and marijuana usages it makes me not want to give them money, but would rather give them food. As much as I want to give all of them food, I can’t because I am a college student trying to live off of the little amount that my parents give me so therefore I try my best not to look at them and to ignore them. Overall, my day here in Athens was actually a great experience and I wish that I was able to go to the farmers market every Saturday.