this little piggie went to market

Nearly every day we head over to the fresh market, across the street from the university. We've become familiar faces while the sellers have become familiar to us. Our knowledge of Vietnamese words for fruit are tested each time we visit the neighbor fruit ladies. They call out greeting and ask if I want xoai (mango), tao (apple), cam (orange) or any other fruit they have for sale. Some, I do not know the name or flavor, but I'm working up the bravery to try.

In the afternoon, the fishmongers show up with their tubs of more varieties of fish than I knew existed. Some are still alive and flip-flopping for attention. Others are left dead and whole, others (large tunas, it seems) are already cut into sections. There are, of course, loads of shrimp, squid, prawns, and small crabs. **Notice all the people looking at me taking their picture. We were even more of a draw with camera in hand.

We've been lucky and the pineapple lady has been there for the last few days. We just tell her how many pineapples we want; usually hai dua thom and she grabs a couple of ripe ones and cuts it up for us right there and then. She uses a big butcher knife to cut off the skin (is that what it's called on a pineapple?), then does this fancy little spiral cut around it to take out the "eyes" (right?). I've gotten pretty good at doing myself, but often I'm lazy and let her do it for me. I gotta be lazy sometimes.

And the vegetable are sold from at least a dozen little sellers, mostly selling the exact same thing: poatoes, onions, squash, garlic, carrots, and a few other unnameable vegetables. Today, a new one was found: stick-length green beans. I had no idea they could grow this long, nor can I figure out exactly how they do it, but do it they must. We saw them at several sellers, so it must be the season for gargantuan green beans.

And as we've only seen in Thanh Hoa.. the horse-drawn cart. On the opposite side of the road is the entrance to the market, complete with requisite booths and motorbike parking.