Gavin has chosen an unusually wet week to spend in Taiwan. It rained hard on our walk to dinner Tuesday and he and Lee got caught out in a downpour yesterday coming back from the market. Today's forecast is for showers and Friday it may rain all day. I don't remember it raining at all in March last year. Actually, last March is a bit of a blur to me, but still, this seems like an awfully early start to the wet season.

While I was busy with my elementary school weaving club (which consists of five very enthusiastic fourth and fifth grade girls) Lee and Gavin biked up to the afternoon market. We affectionately call it Linda's market because our friend Linda is the one who introduced us to this very "authentic" locale. This is no tourist stop. It's just where one goes to pick up makings for dinner, either the raw ingredients or pre-made food. There are dumplings and scallion pancakes, fruit smoothies and noodle soup, plus fruit, vegetables, fresh made pasta.

And, of course, the butcher's section. Recently dead chickens with their heads and feet still attached, every part of the pig except the squeal, and fish and seafood so fresh the fish are still flopping on the bed of ice. This is a good way to face one's decision to be a meat eater. There is no hiding the fact that this meat comes from a once-living creature. There are no styrofoam trays and saran wrap to sanitize one's carnivorous nature.

Lee and Gavin skipped the meat and bought fruit and veggies instead. Once they dried off and changed we met up with some friends, including Linda, for whom we've named the market and had a wonderful dinner at an Israeli restaurant. Lee and I both ordered meat, Gavin, being a vegetarian, did not.