there's a chicken in my bed...

This weekend we broke out of our winter monotony and went skiing with our friends! We went with a large group to Phoenix Park in Ganwando (the province next to Seoul). Since it’s Lunar New Year, we had a long weekend. The bus left early Saturday morning and arrived at the Park before noon, giving us plenty of slope time. Although I’m from the generally snowless lands of South Carolina, I consider myself a decent skier. Green and blue trails are quite fun for me to go down, and I can conquer black diamonds fairly easy if I set my mind and courage to it (which is sometimes a challenge after the “ski-off-of-a-snow-cliff-incident of 2007).
Phoenix Park is by far the nicest skiing facility I’ve been too. There were over fifteen runs… many of which took ten minutes to ski down because they were so long. Over the entire weekend I only had one knock down, skis off wipe out (and yes that was on a diamond run). David is much more daring than I am on skis. He even took his camera out onto the slopes and got a lot of good action shots while we were skiing!






Another great thing about the weekend was the winter scenery. It was snowing pretty heavily when we got there—and the surrounding mountainside became a gorgeous fairy-tale land of snow. It’s not a sight I’ve seen much in my life… pretty breathtaking if you ask me. Fortunately David was there to capture the beauty. It was so refreshing to go for a hike through the iced trees and snow—drinking in the natural beauty of Korea that we so rarely experience here in the city.





Aside from skiing, the weekend had other adventures as well. To keep the cost of the trip down we stayed in a hostel with all of our friends. In Korea, most people sleep on the heated floors instead of in a bed. There are cushioned pads and little else. I’ve never found it terribly hard to sleep on them. In fact, both nights I was so exhausted from the day of skiing that I fell asleep while the room’s other nine inhabitants socialized.
Although I consider myself a heavy sleeper, I was roused from my dreams last night at 4 AM to hear some of our drunker roommates stumble in and turn on the rather bright lights. I groaned and someone else in the room yelled for them to shut off the lights. I rolled over on my side, determined to slip back into my hazy sleep. There was a strange fluttering sound and the soft brush of wind against my cheek. I paid little attention to it. That’s when I heard it: cluckcluckcluckcluck. I shot up, flinging my covers away from the mat. A few inches next to me huddled a shaking, petrified chicken.
Still in my dazed, half-sleep, I lurched out of bed, screaming something to the effect of, “Oh my God, there’s a chicken in my bed!” As soon as I scrambled a good distance away from it, my wrath and fury was turned to the several pranksters who crowded the door into the hallway. Without even a second thought, I whipped out my teacher’s voice, “Get it OUT! NOW!!” They simply laughed and rushed out of the door, leaving the shuddering hen cowering in the corner, getting dirt and poop all over my sleeping mat. By this time everyone else in the room was awake and gaping at the misplaced fowl. David, who actually restrained me from running after the culprits, gathered the chicken inside a blanket and tossed the poor creature out into the hostel hallway. We locked the door and I was left fuming for at least an hour before I could fall back asleep.
By morning my anger had waned, and incident became much more hilarious to my fully awake, non-traumatized self. I mean, really, how many people can say they’ve woken up to a chicken in their bed at a ski resort in Korea? Not many. Not many at all.