Bong soong ah

A couple weeks ago we went on a field trip to a nature museum with the kids. I love field trips with the kids. We explored the inside of the museum that wasn’t too exciting. It’s just a typical museum with a few interactive things for the kids to do. When we were done looking inside we ate lunch and then went outside and played for a bit around the entrance where they had different sculptures and random things to look at.  

Connor and I in the museum.

This is one of those random thoughts I have about Korea.... The men here are extremely feminine. I often times am on the subway and look over and see a man who is dressed more like a girl than I am... to top it off they usually have purses whereas I mainly wear a backpack around all the time. My 6 year old student Connor was no exception this day. As you can see he was wearing floral leggings and a pink t-shirt/dress. He also has better hand writing then me and has a huge baby attitude, he cries daily about something stupid. Below is a better picture of his attire! 

Before we left we had a guy come help us “paint” some of our fingernails. I use quotes because it is actually stain that they use to color the nail. It is called Bong soong ah; a traditional Korean fingernail polish that is made up of crushed flowers and stems. You apply the mush onto your fingernail and then cover it with a plastic bag for your finger. You need to cover it up because you have to keep the flower mixture on your finger for 12 hours or so. Typically you apply it at night then take it off in the morning. The legend is that if the stain stays on your finger (your fingernail doesn’t grow fast) until the first snowfall then you will fall in love.  I put mine on my thumbs. Some kids put them on their thumbs or their pinky’s or random fingers. We each put them on two fingers. When Hadley saw me she said “it looks like you went to town on a bag of Cheetos!” Haha. My fingers were stained as well as my nails. The color that it turns out being is orange. Hadley wanted to take a picture of me with Cheetos, we actually went to a convenient store but they didn't have any so there is no picture of them... (If you look in my blog Dongdaemun and scroll down to the picture of the fan or the watermelon, you can kinda see my orange thumbs!)  It was a fun experience. Sharon says that every little girl in Korea knows what it is and has done it before. 

Two of the 5 year old kids, Stella and Elin.

Julie and Lucy being butterflies.