Market Trip

I spent this morning struggling to figure out my schedule (I have to add another class since my plant one got cancelled) for a few hours. I called it quits once I found out that the woman who I was supposed to give a form to was out of the office for the rest of the day... hopefully she'll be back when I go in tomorrow for round 2. Anyways, I used the afternoon to run a bunch of errands. I bought a bag for carrying produce when I go to the market, notebooks for class, some little groceries, and other odds and ends. Then we went to the big fresh market in downtown Suva. I've been there before, but I hadn't brought my camera, so I made sure to document some of it this time. The market is pretty much a ton of tables in a huge covered area (there's a 2nd floor as well) just covered in eggs, spices, fruit, and vegetables. Pineapple, papaya, watermelon, and bananas are all in season and are really cheap and really delicious. Everything here is smaller than the produce that we get in the US, and actually tastes the way it should, which is a nice break from the bland, genetically altered giants that I'm used to back home. Even the prepackaged chicken breast in the normal grocery stores is smaller and better tasting. But, it is a real pain to get things that aren't in season - apples were probably the most expensive fruit in the market.

I'll try to get a better picture to show how big this place is, but you get the idea.

That's my roommate Katie, buying some pineapple. Pineapple here is SO GOOD! Kind of a pain to cut up and everything, but it's worth it.


Loads of fresh chilis everywhere; hopefully I'll become more tolerant of spiciness and be able to actually do something with these by July.

There is also a fish market nearby since Suva is right on the water, but unfortunately most of it was closing up for the day, so we'll have to try to go back again later. We drove by it on Sunday and it looked packed, so hopefully we can make it there in the morning sometime soon. Flies are a huge problem, so all of the fishermen/women sit by the fish and flick flies away with ribbons of plastic attached to the end of a stick. All of the fish are sold whole, so I guess we're going to learn how to clean fish pretty soon. I'm no good at cooking with seafood, but my roommate Nichole says she loves it so hopefully she can teach me how to deal with fish this semester.

Some pretty blue parrotfish... sad that they're dead, but they probably deserve it because they're tasty.

When I got home I decided to chop up all of the fruit that I had bought so that I could stick it in the freezer and have some instant frozen fruit bites! Besides the stuff that I picked up at the market, I attempted to harvest some of the oranges from the tree outside of our house. The oranges are still dark green, but they're very fragrant and we've seen our housekeeper snacking on them. They're pretty tart, but still good to eat.

The chosen tool for whacking oranges off of tree branches: a 20 foot long bamboo shoot. It's heavy and unwieldy, but after some girly efforts at popping up and down while trying to whip that thing around I managed to knock a few down.

Everything prepared for my fruit chopping party. The green lime-looking things are the oranges.

After cooking dinner and hanging out for a little, a bunch of us went to go see Shutter Island at the theater. Movies here are cheap, and movie candy is way cheaper than candy anywhere else here (chocolate is especially expensive unfortunately), and it's a good way to spend a low key night in some air conditioning. I was a little creeped out though, and was not happy about having to retrieve my laundry from the laundry room (which is outside, in the dark, and looks like a room from the blair witch project) after we got home. Sadly, the clothes that I wore on the hike last weekend are officially stained red, which kind of sucks since I only brought a few pairs of shorts and some t-shirts. I'll manage though.