Yesterday afternoon when I biked home from work I took a detour to a produce market that a friend had recommended. It had a large vegetable section, a lot of which I didn't recognize, although I did come home with bags of basil, cilantro and shaved ginger. There was also a huge section for fruits. I bought some Taiwanese bananas which were incredibly delicious.

On the way out of the market the street was lined with little produce carts. There was the bitter melon guy, the papaya guy, the mango guy, the banana guy, the potato guy, etc, etc. It's like a slalom course with the shoppers, the bikes and the taxis. Fortunately no blood was shed.

Tomorrow we go to the beach. There are two official beaches in the city of Kaohsiung but tomorrow five of us are going to the really nice beach at the southern tip of Taiwan. It'll be a couple of hours in a taxi to get there but for NT$4000 round trip (US$130) that's not bad split five ways.

Here's a shout-out to my friend Timothy, Green Room alum from the class of 2014: He said that at his house Friday was donut day. Well, around here Friday is dumpling day. We've made it a habit now, three weeks in a row, to stop at the dumpling cart on the way to work. The rest of the week we exchange a friendly "zaoshang" (good morning). It's probably not a good idea to have dumplings for breakfast every day.