Alt for Norge Daily Journal: Day 30 - May 27, 2012 (Episode 5)

Today is our second team challenge. I woke up in a very good mood and was ready to destroy the Red Team!

We woke up at 8:00 with the film crews taping us as we got up. For the second time in two weeks, they had me brush my teeth on camera. Such as weird feeling to be doing something like that and have a camera a couple feet from your head. Hope I do it right! After that, we came down and had breakfast with Vebjorn and Tore Andre (Merete and Hanne had already left for work and school.) Shortly after breakfast, we said our goodbyes for the day and left for our competition.

Getting ready for today's competition!

At about 11:00, they filmed us with Henriette as she told us our next competition. In front of two nice cars, they left us know that we would be doing something called “Ronning” (sp?), which is basically driving around town and wasting the day away. We would call it “joy-riding”. However, there was a catch. We had to go to four different locations and do different competitions to earn car fresheners that they call WonderBaums! Again, as with previous competitions, the teams will compete separately and have the results revealed later.

The Red Team would go first and would automatically get 5 WonderBaums to start with for winning yesterday’s competition. During that time, our team went to the crew’s hotel and waited. About two hours later, it was our turn!

Alf practicing for his modeling/spokesman career!

We were informed that there would be no timing on driving or finding the locations, so that was not important, which relieved some stress. We got stated and drove to our first competition.

We pulled up to a soccer field and noticed about 70 students (10 to 16 years old) sitting alongside a soccer goal. Then, there were five balls about 15 yards from the goal and a goalie! I immediately guessed that we would each be shooting five penalty shots against the keeper, and was right. In return, for every goal scored, we would earn one Baum. The team elected me to go first.

Immediately, the crowd started cheering, “Todd, Todd, Todd” over and over! I approached my first shot and put it just left of the entire goal. Oops! That was especially bad since the last thing I told my team was “Just make sure to put it on goal!” My second shot was a little better, but right at the goalie! 0 for 2. Then, I asked the crowd to cheer something different, something like a football kickoff. Next thing you know, I scored! 1 for 3. I immediately ran up and down the row of kids giving them all high fives. Then, again after the next goal and again after the next! 3 for 5! 3 WonderBaums! Next up was Jessica.

The first challenge: Kick a soccer ball past this olympic athlete! (Okay,
he was only a local school boy, but I'm sure he was on steroids or something!)

Jessica had some very nice shots, but this goalie was really good! He made some great saves and kept her scoreless. 0 for 5. Then, Alf was up. The first thing he did was make all the kids clap their hands and say his name as if they all were all seals. It sounded really funny, with 70 kids all doing it at the same time! As for his shooting, he put his first three shots outside and above the goal, but scored on his fourth, then missed his fifth. 1 for 5. 1 more WonderBaum. Finally, Barbara finished us up. Apparently, this would be her first time kicking a soccer ball in over 20 years. She didn’t seem too optimistic about her upcoming performance and was right on with her thoughts. She missed all five and had a couple that just trickled to the goalies feet. It was pretty funny! We would walk away from the first station with 4 WonderBaums.

Following soccer, we took a short drive and ended up at a local church. The next station would consist of a simple scavenger hunt. We would have 3 minutes to find as many Baums as possible, hidden outside of the church. It was a lot harder than we thought it would be and we only found 14 of the 30 hidden. Either way, that’s 14 more WonderBaums.

Another short drive and we were at a gas station for our third station. Our challenge here would be to eat 4 polish sausages covered with all sorts of crap and wash them down with 4 bottles of pear soda. The only catch was that we could help each other out, if needed. (I think this may have been a “Jessica” rule, in case she couldn’t eat the meat.) The faster you finished, the more Baums you would earn. We immediately got started and all of us, including Jessica, who doesn’t eat meat, went to town! My original thoughts were to just eat the hot dog first, then follow it up by downing the soda. However, after eating a couple bites of dog, I took a swig with the soda and discovered it was much easier to eat the hot dog. The only problem was that the carbonation of the soda would immediately be triggered when it hit the food, so it caused a lot of gas in your mouth and stomach! As I got about ¾ through mine, I looked over to see Jessica finishing hers! She was flying! Quickly, she turned to Barbara and helped her finish hers! The vegetarian was putting us all to shame! Once I had the hot dog down, I finished my soda and immediately felt like my stomach was going to blow up! I made sure that we were done as a team, and then I headed outside, in case I was going to throw up. I let out some of the greatest feeling burps I’ve ever had and felt much better! I returned to the store to our celebrating team. We were pretty sure that we did pretty well with our total time and were told that we earned 18 Baums!

Finally, we headed to the same pizza factory from the day before and did another scavenger hunt. This time, we would have two minutes to find as many as possible. When our time was up, we tallied 15 of the 25 Baums. Not too bad, but wish we had done better.

Altogether, we had 51 Baums, which we felt was pretty good, but we were still very concerned about the fact that the other team started off with that five Baum lead.

After lunch and some interviews, we were given the results. It was very close and only 2 Baums separated the teams! Unfortunately, the Red Team had a total of 53. We had lost! This will be my first rip into the elimination challenge. Boo!

The Skog Family! Tied with "the views" for the greatest reason to visit Stranda!

We finished off the filming day with some more interviews and then the taping of us getting “home” to break the news to our “family”. We did a little more filming of preparing dinner and doing some cheers with the Skog family, but then the film crew left and we had alone time.

It felt really good to be alone with our family. They really are very nice, welcoming and even had a little sarcastic/fun tone. It really felt like home, which is what I needed!

We finished the night with a lot of talking, which I listened intently to. We were given a clue to find out as much about everyday life in Norway from our host families. I assumed it was going to be part of the challenge, so I made sure to memorize anything that stood out.

Before we went to bed, we played a game called Kubb. It was great! We’ll definitely have to get a set! In fact, Alf said he’ll make me one and send it to me when we get back! That guy is incredible and is probably the easiest here to get along with! I think we should definitely go visit him after this is all said and done!

Tore Andre and his family trying to take down the Americans
in a game of Kubb! I hate to say it, but we were too competitive
to let them win. For all that they did for us, it would have been
the polite thing, but we just couldn't help ourself!

Time for bed. A bad day, but that’s part of the game. Time to prep for the challenge!

Day 30 Over!