Got Mask?

I am a little scared of current swine flu outbreak. Why? Because this is San Francisco where there is a dense population. People like me take public transportations and are in close contact with each other. Who knows where they were the night before and if they are sick. Plus, this swine flu attacks the healthy young adults, instead of the elderly and children. I begin to think about wearing a mask when I go out. Actually, it has very little to do with this swine flu saga. I always want to wear a mask to fence off vehicle exhaust and nasty smoking. After the news report over the weekend about this flu outbreak, it seems I get a perfect excuse to wear a mask. So, this morning, I wore a surgical mask walking out of my door, and my sunglasses. People on the bus kept looking at me. They probably either think I just escaped from a hospital, or I am running away from the law enforcement after robbing a bank. When I visited Japan, I always saw people wearing surgical masks on subways, even just walking on streets that are normally very clean. It seems very natural to others. Why do people think I am weird when I wear a mask here, even when there is a swine flu outbreak? However, I cannot get over with those curious looks that make me self conscious. On my way home this evening, I took off the mask. I was not in closer contact with other either. I didn’t take the bus and I walked back home, because the bus was simply not showing up. The bus must have got swine flu or something like that. Regardless what other people think, do what I have to do to stay healthy, that’s what I want to live my life. Go to the gym, be happy, stay away from hazard sources, and eat healthy. Speaking of eating healthy, I was pondering today when I was taking a shower — why do food with poor nutrients often taste better? Of course, many nutritious foods are delicious, if cooked correctly. However, it’s normally true that if it tastes good, it might not be good for the health. Deep fried foods are always comforting and fatty foods are also addictive. For example, duck skin, pork belly, bacon wrapped scallops, and many sweet stuff. On the other hand, the better nutrition, the worse it tastes. Brown rice doesn’t taste as tender and fluffy as sushi rice. Whole wheat bread isn’t smooth and fancy as the regular white bread. Broccoli tastes like medicine when eating it raw. On Sunday morning, I made a batch of steamed buns using whole wheat flour that Sean refused to eat. In order to make it a little bit easier on the tongue, I added some raisins in the flour dough. Well, although these whole wheat flour raisin buns (麸皮葡萄干馒头) taste not bad, but the texture reminds me a little bit of the corn bread (窝窝头) that I hated since I was a little kid. I vividly remember the corn bread just stayed in my mouth and cutting on my throat. I chewed and chewed, but I just couldn’t swallow it. But, the corn bread is so much better in terms of nutrition values compared to white flour bread (馒头). Why does it have to be that way? Is taste a learned sense or born from birth? What about smell? Is that also learned sense? Can our brain be trained to alter the sense? I should go to bed, not to think too much…