Alt for Norge Daily Journal: 2012-09-02

Day 11 - May 3, 2012 (Episode 2)

Today was a fun day that started with our next team competition and ended with us sleeping as a team out in a cabin up in the mountains!

Some of the views from our bus ride on the way! Absolutely beautiful!

They had us get packed and on the bus pretty early in the morning, so we could go pick up the film crew. On the way, the scenery slowly changed from green countryside to more and more snow! It was quite the ride! This huge bus that we’re on had to keep making these 180 degree turns, while going up this steep mountainside. I don’t know how the bus driver was able to make some of them!

Standing in front of a 15 foot snow drift. Left a little note for
Logan and Zoe (my daughters).

The cast waiting for our next competition.

Eventually, we arrived at the crew’s hotel, where the snow drifts were about 10 to 15 feet high! Quickly, we loaded the bus with the crew and were off to a small town, between several mountains and next to a fjord, called Skjolden. There, we did some shots of us walking over a bridge and up to a parking lot on the side of a fjord. It was then that Henriette introduced us to our next competition. In front of us were two cars and two tables, each covered with several different objects.

The competition would be for each team to run to the table, choose five items that they believed were essential to a Hyttetur (a cabin vacation), then pack those five items, all of our luggage, and five team members into these smaller cars! The fastest team to do so, would win the challenge! One catch was that each team would be administered a 30 second add-on to their total time for each “essential” item that they got wrong, so it was important to choose wisely. As for winning and losing, we thought that this challenge would determine which team would be going to the elimination challenge, but were surprised to hear that the winning team would simply get an advantage in another competition that we would be doing the next day. The losing team of that competition would be heading to the elimination challenge and sending one of their members home!

After doing some interviews and strategizing we took our marks. (By the way, funny note about the strategizing. You could really see who the “players” were during the downtime that took place between the announcement of the challenge and the actual challenge itself. Austin, Tara and I spent a lot of that time figuring out exactly who should be doing what when we pack the car. You could see some of this going on with the other team as well, but not to the extent that we were doing. Then, there were several others on both teams that were just hanging out and passing the time. It was my first true glimpse into who was playing “the game” to the full extent!) The Blue Team (Austin, Tara, Johnathan, Mary Caryl, Amy, and myself), would be given a 30 second head start for winning the competition from Episode 1. We got started and immediately ran to the table to discover all of the items that were hidden under a sheet. After some quick decision making, we chose the oranges, apples, toilet paper, black currant concentrate, and strawberry-rhubarb juice. Then, as strategized, we ran to the car. I handled packing the back, with Amy and Johnathan bringing me the bags. Tara and Austin worked on getting five sets of skis tied to the top, with Mary Caryl bringing them supplies. As we progressed, we had Amy get in the middle of the back seat, packed some things on her, then Johnathan and Mary Caryl got in, packing things on top of them as well. Once everything was close to the end, Tara and Austin would jump in the front seats and any remaining items would be thrown on top of them. Everything worked like clockwork! All of our planning really helped and once the doors were closed. I jumped on the hood of the car and began celebrating while watching the other team finish up well after we were done. In fact, they thought they were done and everyone was in the car, but the back trunk door ended up popping back up and Alf had to go back to close it a second time! In fact, Alf put so much force into closing it this time that he put two large dents in the back! Oops! (I’m not innocent either. I noticed that my jeans put some decent scratches in the hood of the car when I jumped on it! Sorry!)

A little hard to see, but there are two large dents

that Alf put into this car! A strong man!

After doing some interviews, they had us line up again so Henriette could announce the winners. We ended up getting two items wrong. The apples and strawberry-rhubarb were wrong and should have been replaced with the Yahtsee game and Kvik Lunsj (a chocolate bar). We would add one minute to our time. However, the Red Team ended up getting some wrong as well, so it was basically a wash. (They actually chose the scuba gear! Not sure what they were
thinking!) With that information, we all knew the outcome, the Blue Team was the winner, which is what Henriette announced shortly after. However, apparently they needed some more shots of the reactions, so they did that same announcement four separate times! That was really strange and uncomfortable to have to celebrate your win over and over again in front of the losing team. I don’t think any of us liked that. To wrap it all up, Henrietta revealed that we would actually be heading to a cabin for our own Hyttetur! (Which we were later informed would be for four nights!) We were all pretty excited about that, until we arrived at the cabins.

The views on our drive up to the cabin! It was
unbelievable how much snow there was!

After a 30 minute drive, we arrived at our cabins, which were buried way up in the mountains! There, we found five buildings: a larger cabin for the Red Team, a smaller cabin for the Blue Team, two smaller dilapidated cabins that were empty, and an outhouse! Outside of the outhouse, it was a pretty incredible sight with mountains and snow everywhere. Plus, it stayed light out until around midnight! When we were able to go in our cabin, we realized that as old as they looked from the outside, they were pretty nice inside, just small. Due to this, Mary Caryl and Amy shared a queen size bed in one bedroom, Austin and Johnathan slept on cots in the living room, and Tara and I slept in a bunk bed in the other room (I was chosen out of the three guys because I snored the least and Tara is a light sleeper). After getting settled in, we went to the other cabin for dinner. Unfortunately, because the cabins didn’t have any running water, we had to boil down snow for water, which took a long time. That and prepping all of the food resulted in us not getting to actually eat until 10:00 P.M.! Finally, we got settled in and went to bed. It was a long day, but fun! Now, we just have to get ready for our competition tomorrow! (By the way, we were told later that these cabins were a last second substitute. Apparently, we were supposed to be staying in one large cabin that not only didn’t have running water, but didn’t have electricity either! Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for the program, the cabin was snowed in and we couldn’t get to it.)

Standing next to the cabins! "I'm in Norway!"

DAY 11 OVER!

Standing outside the crews lodge. A beautiful day!

Dana, standing in front of one of hte snow drifts!

A view from our bus ride, on the way to our next competition.

We noticed this tent city and were all convinced

that we would be staying in tents too!

Coming into Skjolden. What a view!

Director Kristofer, giving us our direction.

A look over another fjord!

This is what you do with tremondous amount of

downtime. You pretend you're getting attacked

by anything in sight!

Tara and my room for the next few nights.

A look at the Blue Cabin. Small, but very nice!

The cabin on the left is the Blue Cabin. The cabin

on the right is run down and empty.

Sitting down for dinner. It's been a long day!

Stephanie and Jessica preparing our dinner.

Apparently, cooking essentials include a hat and scarf!

Barbara using her downtime to do some sketches.

Mary Caryl was worn out, but a trooper!

Mandatory reading in a Norwegian cabin: Donald Duck!

We used our downtime to teach Johnathan the finer

art of Yahtsee. However, after witnessing him take

five additional rolls, he didn't seem to care! Ha!

(Expand the "Blog Archive" to the right to find additional entries.)

Day 10 - May 2, 2012 (Episode 2)

Today was simply a travel day, nothing too crazy to report. We got on the bus at 12:30 after a good breakfast and a quick walk to get a Norwegian flag, from the mall, that I’m going to have the cast and crew sign. The bus ride was about six hours or so, of which I spent about half of it studying with the flash cards that I made in Nordby. This brought me to a big dilemma and what would typically be an American reality show error: Sharing tools that could help you get an edge. First thing to note is that it’s almost impossible to hide anything and/or find time to get away and study, without looking like you’re trying to be a loner. You’re either traveling with the entire group, eating with the entire group or sharing a room with someone else. It’s rare to find free time to be alone. Inevitably, and as happened today on the bus, someone’s going to notice you studying, as did Dana today. Next thing you know, I’m sharing my cards with him, then Austin, then Stephanie and before long, everyone is passing them around. Obviously, this isn’t the greatest strategy if you’re trying to gain an edge, but we really feel like a family, so it’s hard not to want to help the other cast members out. Plus, in a show where they’re pushing for people to be nice, you would really come off looking like a jerk if you didn’t share. Anyways, it’s okay, I only give them the cards that I know so I’m sort of one step ahead still.

The Fossheim Hotel in Lom. A great hotel in a great town!

Moving on, we eventually made it to the city of Lom after seeing some incredible sights during our ride, including Lillehammer (sight of the 1994 Winter Olympics!). The city of Lom was a very old town surrounded by mountains. It had some really cool sights, including a 1,000+ year-old church, a river running through it and some really neat buildings. We were given two and a half hours to tour it, which we took full advantage of. Then, we met for dinner without the crew (they continued on and were staying near our filming sight). Dinner was very good, but I noticed that Austin is very good about eating just protein and veggies and staying away from carbs. Probably a lesson I should learn. After dinner we received our “information” for the next day and then everyone went to bed. ("Information" is always a very brief summary of important things for the next day. Usually, we're told what time we need to meet and what we need to wear, but that's about it. It's rare that we ever know what we're going to be doing outside of the next 12 hours.) I’m rooming with Austin tonight and we have the best room out of the group, which includes some great views of the city. Austin continues to be a good guy and easy to hang out with. Also, as in shape as he is, it gives me goals and keeps me motivated to work out! I’m glad I’m married, otherwise this may sound weird that I keep talking about another guy’s body! Ha!

A Stave Church - Extremely old and some incredible architecture!

Anyways, apparently we’re going to have a long day tomorrow! Competition day! Better get some sleep!

DAY 10 OVER!

The cast, after being dropped off in Lom.

The crew would continue onto a hotel closer

to our next days competition.

My hotel room for the night. Austin and I would

be roommates and would enjoy the best room the

hotel had to offer!

A view from our hotel room balcony. You can

see the stave church in the background.

Not sure who this is, but I might have

to try rocking that same neckbeard!

A look at the river that runs through Lom!

(Expand the "Blog Archive" to the right to find additional entries.)

Day 9 - May 1, 2012 (Episode 1)

Today was our first official day off, which just happened to correspond with Norway’s Labor Day, which unfortunately meant all stores were closed and there wasn’t much to do. However, we were still able to have a fun and restful day.

To start, I was able to get about seven hours of sleep, which was my first good night of sleep since I got here, followed it with a great breakfast, and then headed out for a walk. I spent about an hour and a half seeing the sights, but really hoping to find a soccer game to join in on. I was unsuccessful, but did find several areas to play with the group (I convinced Mama Brita to bring the group a soccer ball for our downtime. Apparently, this hotel will be our common home during down time, so it should come in great use.) After the walk, I did about a half hour of studying and then we had lunch as a group. Following some TV time, nine of us got together for group yoga led by Jessica. As all yoga goes, it was weird and not my thing, but its fun to experience different things, so who knows, I may try it again. We’ll see.

Following yoga, the rest of the day was spent eating, studying or hanging out with parts of the group. I even taught them how to play “Up and Down the River” (a Ferris family card game). The card game was interesting, since it started to give me some insight into the competitive levels of some of the other cast members and the abilities to figure out strategies as well as problem solving. For instance, you could really see the competitive nature of Austin. He was hell-bent on winning a game he'd never played before and was also pretty quick to pick up the game. Same goes for CJ. He was impressively quick to pick up the game.

Overall, a good day and I feel well rested! Ready to go into Episode 2!

Day 9 Over!

(Expand the "Blog Archive" to the right to find additional entries.)

Day 8 - April 30, 2012 (Episode 1)

Today was our “meet the press” day, along with our first day of rest. All-in-all, a crazy and long day to start and a fun and too short of a night to finish.

The fun of the day started with a shorter night of sleep, due to some noisy sleepers (I and Alf) and an early sun (dang you, sun of Norway!). Then, because I got up early and have been so pent up lately, I decided it would be good to take a run. I asked the hotel attendant for a map of the area so I could run a 5K. She gave me what might be the worst map ever! Suffice it to say, I went for what should have been a 30 minute run at most, but it became almost an hour and a half by the time it was over. I had run all over the outskirts of Oslo and had asked for directions from at least 10 people, all with different ideas of where I should go. Finally, after zig-zagging all over, I lucked out and ran into the hotel (after just passing it two times before). It was pretty adventurous and made for a good story, but it was a little nerve-racking at the time, considering that I could have been completely lost on my first day in Oslo! Definitely something I’ll remember though!

I forget the name of this place, but it was a pretty nice restaurant on the
top of an Oslo mountainside that was the home to our "Press Day."

After getting back and having a good breakfast, we left for our interviews with the press. We drove up to some high-end restaurant at the top of a mountain outside of Oslo. It was pretty cool and had “neat” food (meaning very pretty, but not the most filling or tasty). We ended up meeting with five different reporters, had several interviews, several group photos and several individual photos. It was pretty interesting to see how it worked and to hear the questions. Definitely, a different experience! (The most interesting part for me was trying to take an interview seriously, all while having Mary Caryl doing some kind of upside-down splits in the background for another reporter!)

Had a lot of downtime waiting to be interviewed,
which allowed time for more story telling over
plenty of bottles of Farris water. (Farris people,
I'm available for spokesman roles! Just have
your Farris people call my Ferris people!)

Five hours later, we were done with the press. We returned to the hotel and had a little downtime, which several of us spent going to a local mall. Nothing like acting like a teen again and wasting time at the mall! Eventually, we got back and met for dinner at 7:00. It was a fun dinner and an incredible steak! Then, some of us stayed after with Mama Brita to watch a soccer game on TV. It was a good time and we had several drinks, but I felt bad since I spent much of the game telling Brita on some rule changes that would make soccer more fun to watch! Apparently, that doesn't go over so well with a true soccer fan!

After the game, we went down to one of our hotel rooms for more drinks. Eventually, next thing you know, 10 of the 12 of us (everyone except Mary Caryl and Jessica) were enjoying drinks and stories! It was the first time that all of us (mostly) would hang out and really let loose. The highlight of the night had to be an inebriated Johnathan telling a detailed account of Norwegian history to Stephanie. It was very humorous to watch! I hope we have this time off after filming each episode and use it to hang out just like this!

The group hanging out on our first night in Oslo!
Good drinks, good people, good times!

Finally, we all decided it was time to go to sleep. A great night after a long day. Good times! Relationships growing stronger with Austin and Dana. Still love me some Alf and Barbara. Pretty much growing to love everyone!

Day 8 Over!

A shot from inside the "Press Day" location.

Alf and I in front of an animal that

he did not kill.

More live action scenes from Press Day.

A weird day!

Dana, looking so regal!

This is my stalker photo of Tara. I just thought

it was funny how the photographer was

making her pose.

You've now discovered my secret for being so sexy!

A view from our interview site! Not a bad look at Oslo!

Austin and I checking out the latest

technology at the mall!

The balcony of Hotel 33. Great views!

I don't typically take photos of food, but this

would turn out to be one of the best steaks I've

ever had! (Maybe it just tastes better because

it wasn't food out of a tube!)

(Expand the "Blog Archive" to the right to find additional entries.)

Day 7 - April 29, 2012 (Episode 1)

Today was another long day of filming. Starting at 9:00 A.M. and ending past midnight, involving more video, our first taste of “traditional” food and a chance to swim in a fjord.

I started the day with a quick run at 9:00. I really needed to do something athletic. (We seem to do a lot of standing every day, which is already starting to wear me down. I need to be able to get in some exercise whenever I can.) It felt good and I got to see some of the area, which we otherwise weren’t going to see.

I got back, cleaned up and headed out to our first task of the day, to do our group opening shot that would be used in the opening of every show. It actually went fairly quickly and I was the first one done with my individual shot. Because of this, they told me I could go back and get changed. Knowing that I had some extra time, I decided to tour more of the fort, since we haven't been given any time to view anything other than what we had done our filming. Pretty neat stuff, but apparently, it got me in trouble. I guess they wanted me to go straight back and thought that they had lost me. After a brief apology and explanation of where I was, we were back on track.

Fish eggs have never been enticing to
me, especially when served like
toothpaste!

Next was our first test of a “traditional” Norwegian breakfast. It consisted of every type of fish-nastiness you could imagine, some of it even gets served in tubes (like toothpaste)! Most of it was nasty. Fortunately though, we didn’t have to eat it all, but I still voluntarily tried everything! They may have been small bites, but I didn't want to miss out on any of Norway!

After breakfast, we gathered to go to a picnic. We jumped on a bus and headed to a beach next to a fjord. There, we were supposed to go swimming but we ran out of time. However, we did have time to do some wading, have a bar-b-que, and drink some of Alf’s mead (a honey wine)! It was really good! Half the group was also asked to go find some mussels in the water. This was the first time to see Austin in all of his glory. Dude has an incredible body, which you could see the cameras loving! Pretty funny! Then, they did interviews where we watched Dana get sent away for causing too many distractions. He’s a trouble-maker, but pretty funny too!

Searching for mussels with Mr. Muscles, Austin Muller!

We finally wrapped things up and headed back to the bus so we could go back to the fort. However, before we left, I found some locals playing soccer, so I had to join in, as did a couple of the other cast members. This was my first glimpse of CJ and his string of bad luck/athleticism. He, while carrying his backpack and some other things to keep his hands full, went to kick the soccer ball, whiffed, lost his balance, and landed square on his butt! It was pretty humorous and the locals definitely enjoyed the show!

Alf Herigstad, the first winner of the Norwegian
Spririt Award! Looks just like him, huh?!

When we got back, we dressed up and went to a special dinner. There, we were served mussels, salmon, crab, some form of fish and a beautiful dessert, all by a very famous Norwegian chef/celebrity, Ole Martin! I wasn’t a huge fan of the salmon with caviar, but liked the rest. This was also when Henriette came in and announced the winner of the first Norwegian Spirit Award (represented by an ugly troll doll). Alf, who shared his mead and his ritual with the group, was very deserving and therefore, the recipient of the troll! Couldn't go to a better guy!

After that, more interviews, then we got packed up and on a bus for our next destination, which would be Oslo! (However, we were not allowed to go into the downtown area of Oslo yet, so we stayed in the outskirts at a hotel called Hotel 33. A very nice hotel, but in an more-industrial part of town.)

Only new things to report: discovered that I’m having trouble getting anything in word-wise on camera. One, because there are some pretty loud people that like screen-time, but also because I’m not “over-acting”. I’m really trying to be myself, unlike some of the others, which seem to be trying to “turn it on” for the camera. Again, really growing to like some members (Austin, Dana, Jessica, C.J., Alf, Barbara, and Johnathan). Overall, I like the group as a whole and we seem to really get along!

On to Monday, which is meet-the-press day!

Day 7 Over!