The Great Wall and The Mediocre Blog

Ni Hao (Mandarin Chinese word for hello, pronounced knee how) my faithful readers!

I just finished a delicious bowl of room service Wonton Noodle Soup here in my Beijing hotel room, and decided that while this communist country may be able to block my beloved social media network, AKA Facebook, they can't take away my blog! So here I am, writing this post and simultaneously sticking it to the man...whoever the man may be.

Several weeks ago, after I finished my half marathon, I emailed one of my favorite fitness bloggers and thanked her for writing daily running posts that were filled with useful information for a newbie half marathoner, like myself. I didn't even expect a response from her, I just genuinely appreciated all of her running advice and wanted to thank her. Keep in mind, I was raised by a woman who wrote notes of gratitude to her former teachers, thank you poems to the UPS man, and once, a heartfelt letter of appreciation to her very favorite sock manufacturer! Cray cray is in my blood!

So it was much to my surprise when Sarah, from www.skinnyrunner.com, not only replied back to my email, but asked me to write a guest post for her blog! This was quite an honor for me because 1- SR is a well known blog in the running community 2- Sarah basically holds celebrity status in my mind! Not only has she ran nearly 50 marathons, but I'm also fairly certain she has more solid muscle in one square inch of her calf than I do throughout my entire body!

I finally decided it stop being Polly Procrastinator, and wrote the article this week, which SR posted yesterday. You can check it out here http://skinnyrunner.com/2013/05/07/running-around-the-globe/

With the article, I also shared a link to my blog, so if you're a new reader I'd just like to say WELCOME and I'm sorry, as this blog is a complete and utter mess! It's disorganized, it lacks general direction, and I have no clue what I'm doing with it half the time. I mean the name if the blog (Schutz and Scores) doesn't even match the blog address (booingboring), who does that?! I've seriously considering revamping the whole thing about a million times, but I actually find it to be a bit symbolic, as my life is also disorganized, lacking general direction, and I have no idea what I'm doing with it, WELL OVER half the time!

I started my blog three years ago this month (buy me some presents folks, I think we've got a birthday). At the time I was just getting ready to graduate from Western Illinois University with my degree in Social Work. I thought this blog would be a cool way to communicate with the world, and by the world I do mean my mom, about my adventures in Orlando as I interned with Walt Disney World.

My Parent's Visiting Me During My 2010 Disney Internship

Throughout the last three years, one adventure has just led to another and I've continued blogging about it all. Unfortunately, the blog ended up boring my main reader to death (pun intended), but a few of you seem to enjoy my weekly rambles, and so I just keep writing!

So yes, writing about my adventures....

While last week's layover activity left my legs quivering from fear, this week's quivering was brought on by a whole other experience. I finally accomplished my lifelong dream of making out with Channing Tatum!

PSYCH!

I visited the Great Wall of China and climbed to the top of one of the peaks. For a person who considers my self to be in fairly descent physical condition, I could not believe the muscle spasm party my legs were throwing by the time I reached the top!

Sweet mother of pearl, that was a lot of stairs! In the end, the climb was definitely worth it, as the view was absolutely gorgeous!

The view, the climb, and the history were all pretty amazing, but my favorite part of the visit was the way in which we came back down: toboggans! Basically, a metal slide winds all the way through the mountain. Visitors sit on what is essentially a scooter with a brake, and fly down to the bottom of the hill. Had those steps been a little less treacherous, I definitely would have tobogganed again!


Myself and The Crew Getting Ready to Taboggan

After visiting the Great Wall, my fellow cabin crew members and I visited the Forbidden Temple. Personally, I didn't quite understand what was so forbidden about the place, as it was seriously crowded and they seemed to be letting everyone and their dog inside! None the less, it was still an interesting historical place, and provided me with the opportunity to take cliche touristy pictures.

Interesting fact that I learned after posing for this pic, bowing is uncommon in modern day China. It is typically only used when greeting royalty or the elderly. Unlike the Japanese style, Chinese Bowing is done primarily from the shoulders up. Hmmmm, and now I know.

I'd love to share more Chinese history tidbits I learned today, but unfortunately I've got a bit of a mystery on my hands that I need to tend to. This......

just showed up in my room and I have NO IDEA how it got here! Weird.

Have a great week, everyone!