When people have a cold in Taiwan, it is considered common courtesy to wear one of these surgical masks. The idea being that their germs won't make it through the mask and out into the world where they can infect you. Also since the air is pretty bad in Taipei especially, sometimes people will wear these masks just when walking on the street. Not to mention the a fore mentioned fact that a lot of people have herpes in Taiwan, so a mask is a convenient way to cover that up. Meaning a lot of people wear masks in Taiwan.
Now if you will allow me to be a pig for a moment. Being in Taiwan I have discovered that for me the most appealing part of a woman is her lips. If we are talking purely physical attraction, than the lips are the make it or break it part. If everything else is perfect, but I don't like the lips, than no dice.
Now this relates to masks in a somewhat peculiar way. Essentially i think anybody who wears a mask is pretty. Yes i'm so finicky about lips, but if I can't see them, than everybody seems perfect to me. You'd think it be the opposite, but hey, i'm not in charge of what my baser self thinks.
But of course not all people can be pretty. So this leads to a very fun, and somewhat dangerous game, that I play by myself or with friends, on the subway. Essentially I will see what i believe is a pretty girl who has on a mask, and then my friend (usually a girl) and I will guess if that lady is pretty without the mask on. Usually my female friends will base it on how the lady is dressed. I on the other hand, being a pure being, base it on looking deep into the woman's eyes and seeing her soul.
If we're lucky the person will take off their mask at some point and we will see who was right. And I mentioned this being a dangerous game. As in my naive youth maybe I would go up and befriend a pretty girl in a mask only to have her take off the mask.
Ahem. well that was a long time ago, I'm older and wiser and my attractions are much less based on physical appearance. For that reason I'm a bit embarrassed to even put up this post, but hey, all of us were foolish kids at some point. All the better if we can laugh at it.
