This morning we met up with some friends to do some New Year's shopping at the wholesale snack-food market. I don't know that it's actually called the wholesale snack-food market, but it should be. This is me and Sheila holding up a banyan tree on the way to the market.

Sheila is one of the fifth grade teachers and a delightful person. Unfortunately she and her husband Lech will not be staying in Taiwan after the end of this school year. It's part of the international teaching culture that friends and colleagues are always on the move. Oh well. They will be missed, but at least we'll have some friends to visit if we ever go to Poland.

Back to shopping. The place was packed with people but Lee stands above many people around here, not to mention that our little group of westerners all stick out in the crowd. No need to worry about losing each other.

We were pretty overwhelmed with the variety of foods. There was a lot of sampling going on and a bit of impulse buying as well. This is not a place to barter with the price, which I dislike doing anyway. Here is a sampling of some of the food options.

Dried fruit. We bought some mango.

Nougat in way more flavors than I could have imagined.

Lots and lots of sausages, always too sweet.

Don't know what to call these. Sort of like rice cakes, slightly sweetened and rolled in sesame seeds, crushed nuts or seaweed.

Dried mushrooms in every size and variety.

These are a little like jello jigglers sandwiched around some kind of filling. The one I tried was mashed sweet potato with molasses-flavored jello on the outside. If that doesn't sound appealing it's my fault and not the fault of the food - it tasted quite good.

In addition to stuff we brought home for ourselves we also bought some treats for the apartment guards and doormen for New Year. It was a good haul. On the way home we passed this little family:

 After all, who doesn't want to share their scooter with five (!) little white dogs.