March 29, 2010

@ Rose St Market 市場上工囉



Saturdays and Sundays are G & J's working days + social days.  :)
Rose Street Artists' Market (a venue where artists and skilled craftspeople can sell their wares direct to the public) is the spot where we are on the weekends.

On Saturdays we have to be there around 9am to set up our store. The market is open between 11am to 5pm. It usually takes us about 2 hours to set up whilst it only takes 5-10 mins for some stallholders to set up...

Because Greg's got quite some amount of his jewellery pieces for the market, it takes a long time to finish setting up... (plus G's anal / fussy about the way of presenting, you know~~)  And recently it seems like people (potential customers) turn up in the market earlier than 11am especially on Saturdays. (a bit stressful...)


It's interesting to see different kind of people at the market. There are always people from various places, no matter in the state, from other states or even from other countries! Sometimes I hear people talking in their own languages and I always wonder what they talk about.... good things or bed things about our products? how they feel about Rose St Artists' Market? what do they think about the prices? ...

Because English is not my first language, I can't really interact with people like the way Greg does..
Smiling would be my first reaction when eye-contacting happens.. Yet I grab the chance (usually from those owho seem frinedly, or those ask questions..) to try to establish conversations with people if I can. Otherwise I try to listen to what Greg and people talk about and digest the conversations, if I am able to.. (cz some of the contents are still difficult for me to understand....  >_<). Every now and then I get a bit frustrated due to no understanding of the talks or the jokes~~ I still ask questions when I don't understand, yet it's not always easy to entertain the whole pictures of conversations...

However, sometimes I get to talk to people who can speak Mandarin (I speak great Taiwanese, too! Just don't really encounter with people who speak my mother tongue that often~). It's some sort of form to shorten the distance between me and strangers by using the same language (other than English) to talk about things. I guess, to some degree, this allows us to sense a link that's being built within a short time~~ 


It's great to have the opportunities to communicate with people and get to know how they think toward G's work, the market, and even other topics that's been talked. Also being at the market, I get to chat with  interesting friends I made there and look around at other storeholders' products. All these add up the points for being at the market on the weekends when most people view the weekends as days off - no working.
Oh, and when you see customers buying with a satisfied smile because of either your products, service, or even just friendly conversations; that definitely brights the moments being at the market!  :)


Some photos to share~
People wear G Mann's jewellery with smiles~~




每個星期六和日,就是Greg和我市場上工+社交的日子.
"玫瑰街藝術家市集" (Rose Street Artists' Market) - 一個讓藝術家和手工藝達人們能夠直接銷售他們的作品/製品的地方- 就是我們週末出沒的地點. 

星期六大約早上九點就要到那兒.市場開放時間是11am-5pm.
每次都要花2小時左右才能完成將攤位擺設起來這事兒~~
(當有些人卻只花5-10分鐘就完成擺攤.....  真是天壤之別啊!!!)

我們家的東西又超多,加上Greg處女座龜毛的個性....
再加上這陣子以來,來逛市集的人出現的時間又越來越早... (尤其是星期六), 真是OMG!

有趣的是總會有來自各地不同的人來逛.
有時聽著他們用著他們的母語對話,就會很好奇地想--
到底他們講些什麼ㄋㄟ?
好話還是壞話ㄋ? 對這個市集的看法嗎? 對價位的反應ㄋ?

由於英文非我母語,我無法像Greg一樣輕輕鬆鬆就能和人喇勒~~ (再者他天生就很"搞喂")
當我和人眼神接觸時,微笑就成了我的第一反射動作.
但我還是會找機會與人攀談啦~
(就挑一些"軟柿子"下手--
他們看起來要是較和藹可親的,或是那些先主動開口問問題的,
我才比較敢開口- 畢竟公主也是會害羞嘀....)
要不我通常都在旁聽Greg和人聊的咚咚,試圖東拼西湊理出一個大概...
有時還是頗沮喪- 因為他們對話內容或用字太深,"我聽無"   >_<

可是有時也會有來逛的人剛好會講中文.
這時就會有那麼一些些瞬間拉近距離的感覺

去市場上工讓我有機會能和人聊天--
不管是他們對Greg作品的想法,對市集的感覺,或甚至是天南地北莫名聊起的話題...
而且我也喜歡和同在那兒擺攤的朋友講話~
這些因素為週末上工這事兒加分!
當然還有就是當看到顧客們帶著滿意的笑容付錢時(不管是因為太喜歡我們的東西,或我們提供的極佳服務,甚或是聊的很爽),這無疑是為市場上工這事兒增色許多!!!




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