Sunday, June 28, 2009

Boston's Haymarket Fruit & Vegetable Market

 A view of Haymarket from a distance - you can see the traditional red brick old style of the buildings directly behind the market and above that the fog blowing in on the ocean breeze starting to cover the tops of the buildings.

Vendors accept cash only, of course.  Many vendors wont give change for a $20, so come with small bills and a backpack or cart and load up for the week!





























































Haymarket Square is an open-air area between the North end, Government Center and Faneuil Hall Marketplace.  The market is held every Friday and Saturday during daylight hours (except next weekend, when it will 
be open Thursday and Friday since Saturday is the 4th of July).  I love this market for its intensity, low prices, surprising selection of fresh fruits and vegetables that changes every week depending on what overstock shows up for sale, the diversity of foods and cultures represented at market and the atmosphere.  I enjoy hearing many languages, seeing people from different cultures in their traditional clothing, smelling the fruits, vegetables and seafood for sale, and even having to push through the crowds as the narrow corridors between stalls are always clogged with people, carts, strollers and boxes.  It is a crazy, unruly open air market and I love the unorganized, wild nature of it, so different from the orderly pricey perfection of Whole Foods.
The open air stalls face a building that houses several small Middle Eastern markets and a pizzeria.  I haven't tried the pizzaria, but the Middle Eastern markets sell many hard to find items at good prices including bulk dried fruits, nuts, spices, seafood and halal meat, incense, African made soaps and beauty products, tropical juices, and probably many other interesting things I haven't even spotted yet.  The last picture is me, happy to be hanging out at Haymarket.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Global Student

I wrote about my alternative path in education, skipping high school and going straight to college and taking several opportunities to travel and live abroad, for Maya Frost's new book Global Student.  It is receiving a lot of press already - check out this USA Today link!  http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-08-college-book_N.htm
And a Boston Globe book review:
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/06/07/new_global_student_you_majored_in_what_how_to_love_provide_different_ways_of_learning/
The cover of Maya Frost's book The New Global Student. "Schools are important partners, but as parents we are responsible for making sure that our kids develop the skills they need to thrive in the global economy. We can't assume this will happen magically after 12 years of class attendance and standardized tests," Frost says.