Flowers, Flour, and Potatoes?

This week my host sister said she wanted to do our nails together. So Sunday night came, and I'm in the living room with my family relaxing and watching the Olympics, and my sister says, "Hey, let's do our nails now!" I agree, and she runs off for a second and comes back with...a bag of dried flowers. She immediately dumps them into a bowl with a little water and begins crushing them with a spoon. She saw my perplexed expression and began to explain. This wasn't nail polish as most people know it, but a traditional Korean art. These flowers grow on Jeju Island and bloom in the late summer, and the flowers can be crushed with a bit of water to create a flowery leafy blood orange type mixure. You coat your fingernails in this mixture, wrap them in cloth or plastic, and sleep overnight with your fingers wrapped. In the morning, after you wash off the flowers, your fingernails are stained a blood orange color. Legend and tradition say that, if the color lasts until the first snow, you will marry your first love. Now, as she was telling me this, I couldn't help thinking about the fact that I live in south Texas, where it snows about once every five years or so, haha. But anyway! Here's an article that explains the whole process a lot better than i do. :)

http://jejulife.net/2008/10/24/bong-seon-hwa-dyeing-fingernails-a-yearly-traditional-korean-custom-by-sherrin-hibbard-jeju-south-korea/

While she was applying the flower mixture to my nails, she noticed a rash on my arm. It was just a small rash from my eczema, nothing serious. I usually just put on some extra lotion and ignore it, but it freaked my host sister out and she called my host mom over to look at it. My host mom called my grandmother over, and before I know it they're talking about traditional medicine practices and treatments and whatnot. They told me that they can make mdedicine for me using potatoes, and I agreed. Hey, when in Korea...!

So, I'm sitting there, my hands useless while they're wrapped in flowers and plastic, and the next thing I know, my host grandmother comes over and starts spooning this ice-cold potato mixture over my arms and legs. They explain it's a mixture of potatoes and water and ice and flour (not flowers this time!), which sounds more like a recipe for some baked good, but they told me all about how this is a traditional medicine to to treat minor skin ailments. And boy, did it work! After a thirty minute application of the potato mixture, my rash had calmed down significantly, and in the morning it was even better! Sadly, I cannot say the same for my nails. I woke up and washed away the flowers, eager to see the results, but my fingernails were/still are an...interesting...shade of orange. My host sister's were the same, so we didn't do something quite right, haha. We're going to re-try this weekend, so I'll update on how our second attempt goes!

Here are a few photos! Please excuse my unattractiveness, as it was about 11:30 at night and I was getting ready to go to bed. xD