Alt for Norge Daily Journal: 2012-09-16

Day 22 - May 14, 2012 (Episode 3)

Bowling with the cast!

Today is a “rest” day and lived up to that term. I woke up to a knock on my door at around 8:45. Apparently, I was so excited to have no one in the room last night when I went to bed, I forgot to set my alarm and Austin, who I was supposed to be running with, was wondering where I was. Oops. I quickly got ready and off we went for a 2+ mile run with a break in between to do some pull-ups on a school playground. After that, a shower, breakfast, and 2 hours to study before lunch. At about 1:00, we all got together and went to a local mall to do some shopping, where we found a bowling alley. Mama Christine agreed to let us all bowl a game on the production companies tab! Quickly, the competitive side came out of Alf, Austin and myself, and gambling immediately followed. It wasn’t much, with each of us putting 20 Kroner ($4) down, but it still made the game even more interesting. It was pretty competitive throughout, with the game being close until the end, when I started to pull away, eventually shutting the door and claiming my money! (Austin and Alf are definitely the two most competitive people here, bedsides myself. In fact, they remind me of an older and younger version of myself!) After the mall, it was back to the hotel for dinner.

Alf showing off his boxing skills! He has some scary power....but it wasn't
long before an employee came over and showed him up!

We met in the one of our conference rooms again, with food being delivered from a local restaurant that serves all kinds of different types of food. However, the craziest thing was that the food came with real stainless steel silverware! Nuts! Norway has so much money that they deliver actual cutlery with their fast food! Anyways, after dinner, I went and studied with Alf and CJ for a few hours in another conference room. It was very relaxed and nothing too crazy, but we still, we all made it a good time.

Not what it seems! One of the funny things about Norway is the use of
universal bathrooms. All genders would come to into this area and use
one of the private stalls. Kind of a strange scenario when you come out
to discover someone of the opposite gender staring at you!

Going to bed around midnight. A pretty boring day, but probably something we all needed!

Day 22 Over!

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Day 21 - May 13, 2012 (Episode 3)

Saying goodbye to Mary Caryl. Because of how late things finished up the
night before, she spent the night at a different hotel in Stavanger, but flew
back to Oslo with us this morning.

Nothing too crazy happening today. We were up and traveling at 6:30 and after a short flight, we got back to our home base hotel, Hotel 33, at about noon. Unfortunately, our rooms weren’t quite ready, so we had lunch in their lobby area, followed by some cards. Along with that, Austin and I made up a bowling game with paper and tape! It was hard to play, but made for a great way to pass time! When our rooms were finally made up, I unpacked and then put our soccer ball in my backpack and went for a walk, in hopes of finding a game or field to play on. Unfortunately, due to it being Sunday, every field had an official practice or game going on, so I ended up walking for about 2 hours. Halfway through my walk, I stumbled upon a horse track that had some major event going on. Apparently, they were having a big race that day and it would cost 100 Kroner ($20) to get in. For the first time, I attempted to use the fact that I was on Alt for Norge to see if I could get something free and sure enough, they let me in! The race ended up being chariot races, a very strange race, but pretty entertaining to watch!

A free (for me) horse race! Chariot racing is very interesting to watch!
I'll put a video of it up on my Facebook Fan Page.

After watching a little bit of the races, I continued on my walk, getting back to the hotel around 4:00. I still had two hours to kill before dinner, so I spent it writing this entry and working on my Norwegian. During that time, Dana stopped in and we had a pretty good chat. It was very interesting getting his perspective on how the whole show was unfolding so far and the heat that he was receiving from the crew about his relationship with Tara. The show had made it quite clear to him that this was a “family show” and they did not want to see him and a married woman having a relationship. No news on whether or not that line had been crossed, but he definitely was not shy to say how much he liked Tara!

Eventually, we met for dinner and just had pizza delivered to one of the hotel conference rooms and followed that up with some cards. (However, Jessica and Barbara headed to bed. Those two don’t seem to stay up very late.) It was only 9:30 when we finished with cards, so Amy, Johnathan, Mama Christine and I went for a 30 minute walk. Everyone else went to bed, except for…..you know who. Who knows where they are! Anyways, I’m alone in the room for now. It’s 10:30 and I may actually try to get some sleep. Gonna go running with Austin at 8:30 tomorrow morning, then a long day of boredom. Good night!

I love you and miss you, wife!!

Day 21 Over!

Barbara made everyone some "Alf-strands"

to wear on our flight home!

Some interesting reading that Amy found!

C.J. getting the "pins" set up for our

bowling game.

Austin striking a pose before

throwing his ball.

A shot of the Grand Prix and the winner's circle.

Not the most beautiful day, but a fun one either way.

Looks like a lot of fun! Maybe we'll get a

chance to do something like this!

A shot of one of the workers jackets, so

I knew where I was.

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Day 20 - May 12, 2012 (Episode 3)

Today brings us down to 10 and leaves me with another favorite memory! Good times along with a great competition!
We got started late today, which left me time for sleeping in until 9:00 (not really sleeping in, when you got to bed around 3:00), a five-mile run at 10:30, lunch at 1:00, then shopping with Austin and Johnathan at 2:00. Finally, 3:00 came around and we met to go to the individual challenge. It was then that we were informed it would involve another export, this time being Norwegian Black Metal! (Norwegian Black Metal is basically the heaviest of the heavy metal music!) Each contestant would receive a CD with some music on it, use up to 45 minutes to write 20 seconds worth of lyrics to go with that music, and then “sing” those lyrics in front of a live audience, all with a super group of black metal artists playing behind them! The audience would then vote for their favorite. Whoever had the least votes goes home! Immediately, we all realized this would be a tough one for Mary Caryl!

Waiting for the show, I invited this local kid to help me beat
Austin and Alf in a game of foosball.

Before the performances, we waited in a lobby-type area of what was an old abandoned warehouse/beer distillery. When we arrived there, there were about 40 people waiting as well, all dressed in black! We immediately stood out, but were able to get pretty friendly with everyone as we waited. I even asked a young kid to be my teammate on the foosball table.

Finally, the time came to go in and see the show. We all went in to see a crazy industrial-like room with a bar at one end and a large stage at the other. The room wasn’t too large though, which was probably a good thing, since the producers were hoping for about 200 fans and only had 40! Because of the sub-par turn out from what they were expecting, the crew had to not only stand in the audience to help fill it up, but had been grabbing people off of the street that just happened to be walking by, including a bachelorette party!

Jessica, C.J., Mary Caryl, Tara and Dana harnessing their inner-demons!

After some preparation and an intro from Henriette (dressed in black metal garb), the show got started! A keyboardist, drummer, guitarist and bassist started playing some heavy music and after about 30 seconds, Tara took the stage. She did her part for about 20 seconds, then handed the mic to CJ, then Mary Caryl, then Dana, and finally, Jessica. Each one of them was dressed completely in goth-type clothing and screaming into the mic. We couldn’t understand any of the lyrics, since they were in Norwegian, but I’m pretty sure the Norwegian audience couldn’t understand them either, due to the screaming that was used to sing them!

The cast with their "backing band", a super-group of famous black-metal artists!

Overall, I thought Dana did the best (not surprising, since he used to be in a heavy metal band), Jessica was next best with a great stage show, followed by Tara, who was okay, CJ, who didn’t really move at all, but sang well, and last had to be Mary Caryl, who we were calling MC Hammer at this point. She was not only awful with her singing/screaming, but added some non-black metal type dancing, and of course, ended the whole thing with the splits, her sign ature move!

As assumed, that’s how the voting ended up going. Mary Caryl was out and the group was pretty emotionless, including Mary Caryl. She was definitely the odd man out of our group and never seemed to be trying too hard to hang out/fit in with the rest of us. The lack of emotion may have been that or just the fact that everyone was expecting it was her to go today.

Anyways, it was over. We all said our goodbyes and off she went. We then did our post-competition interviews and a closing scene with Henriette that involved us hanging out at the bar and having a beer. It was then that they announced this week’s winner of The Troll would be Jessica! It’s been a tough week for her, but she’s really held together and kept positive.

Alf and Henriette passing time after the results were announced. After
hearing as many stories as we did about friends of Alf's that he had knocked
out by accident while sparring, we were all a little worried about how
this would end! You'll just have to wait until Episode 4 to see if either
one of them show up with a black eye!

After we wrapped up shooting, we headed back to the crew’s hotel for dinner and a show. It turns out that the Norwegian equivalent of the Emmy’s was that night and Alt for Norge was up for an award! Although, they didn’t think they would get it, since they had won one last year.

Watcing the Gullruten awards, which is the Norwegian equivalent of
our Emmy's. A really cool moment to be a part of.

We all gathered at the restaurant at the top of the hotel, where they had a projector set up to show the awards show live. Of course, everything was in Norwegian, so a lot had to be translated for us, but it was still fun to watch. Turns out, most of the crew had worked on other various shows that were nominated for different awards, so it was cool to see a random crew member explode with cheer after a different show had won an award! Then, the time came. The nominees for Best Reality Competition were announced. Everyone in the restaurant quieted down and next thing you know, there was some Norsk spoken by the announcer, but then you heard him say, “Alt for Norge”, and the room exploded! Everyone went crazy, running around, hugging each other, high fiving, giving each other salutes across the room! What a moment to be a part of! We even got to watch Steinar, the Executive Producer from TV Norge give an acceptance speech where he gave a shout out to the cast and crew who was out filming Season 3! It was just so cool to see these people that you’ve been working with 24-7 for the last three weeks get rewarded for their hard work and see what it meant to them! Definitely will be one of my favorite moments from this whole journey!

C.J. and members from the black metal group before going out!

After dinner, we ended up deciding to go out with the band from the competition. Our Mama’s weren’t too happy about it, since it was already midnight and we needed to be up and leaving at 6:30 A.M., but how many times do you get a chance to go party with actual rock stars!! Off we went, following their sound guy, who was already drunk and smoking a joint while we walked! We ended up going to some bar that was packed with a bunch of 21 year olds. That, combined with some crazy antics from that sound guy (who apparently had just done some cocaine), led to most of us opting to head home. Alf, Austin, CJ and myself were back by about 1:30 and asleep by 2:00. Found out later that Dana and Tara stayed out until 4:00! Apparently, when they left, even at 4:00, the bar and those rock stars were all still going strong!!

That’s it for today. Mary Caryl is one and Alt for Norge truly is a very coveted show by fans and critics alike! What a day!

Day 20 Over! Down to 10!

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

Day 19 - May 11, 2012 (Episode 3)

Today was a pretty boring day, up until the end!

It all got started a little later than usual with a get-together time of 10:30! With that, I decided it would be a good day to catch up on some sleep. By closing the curtains, Johnathan and I were able to escape Norway’s early sunrise and sleep in until 9:00. It felt great! At 10:30, we were off to a remote location to do our “reality day” interviews. Due to the remote location, there was nowhere to go, so we had to just hang out on the bus the whole time (about 3 hours), which wasn’t terrible since I used that time to catch up on some studying.

One of the interesting things that we had to do today involved Alf and a coconut. Yesterday, while we were waiting for our competition, we were hanging out, throwing rocks in the water. Interestingly enough, Alf discovered a random coconut floating along the shoreline. He scooped it up, gave it to Dana, who then opened it to discover that it was in pretty good shape. He shared it with all of us and it tasted great! Well, apparently the producers thought that was an interesting enough story to reenact. The problem was that Alf was having his “special day” and would be going off to see his Norwegian family’s area today, so we had to reenact the scene without him. That being the case, I was the one to discover the coconut! Honing in on all of my acting skills, I was able to pull off the scene. David Hasselhoff would have been proud!

Interviews and “reality” filming wrapped up around 2:00 and we headed back to the hotel to get changed for a filmed dinner. At about 4:30, we gathered to go to our filming/dinner location. We were all guessing it would probably be lutefisk and after an introduction by Henriette, we were right!! It looked nasty! However, we were given an incentive to eat it. Anyone who eats it all would get a Lusekofte, which is a traditional Norwegian sweater. They are very detailed and extremely expensive, but not exactly something I would wear. However, it would make a great present for my Mom, so I decided to go for it!

LUTEFISK! It tastes just as good as it looks!

Thankfully, Henriette also gave us a bottle of aquavit, which is a Norwegian alcohol. It was very good and definitely would help get the lutefisk down. We all dug in! (Okay, not all of us. Jessica, who was a pescatarian (doesn’t eat meat, except for fish), decided after yesterday’s events, that she couldn’t eat fish anymore, either.) In front of us was a plate with two large portions. One, was the lutefisk, in all of its glory. The other was a potato-looking thing covered with bacon pieces. I decided that I would power through the lutefisk and just get it over with.

I finished up my lutefisk and exclaimed, “Done! I just earned my sweater!” Quickly, everyone pointed out my error in judgment. That potato-looking portion was actually more lutefisk! Ugh! I got back to work.

The cast rocking their Lusekoftes! (Except for Jessica. However, she did
earn the pleasure of having a lutefisk-free stomache!)

Everything else went pretty smoothly. Amy and Tara were gagging through their portions, which was pretty funny. Jessica just had to sit and watch. Half of us, including myself, ate the skin of the fish, which we didn’t know not to, until the director told us. However, the best part was Johnathan! He was thoroughly enjoying his meal, so much so that I thought it would be a good time to dare him to eat a special treat! Using someone’s extra fish skin, some shredded brunost, and a ton of horseradish sauce, I created a special “sushi” roll! Without hesitation, Johnathan threw it in his mouth and almost swallowed it whole! He took it like a champ! I’m growing to like that guy! I didn’t know about him at first, but the more I hang out with him, the more I like him!

My lusekofte was a little small, but that didn't matter, since it was going
to be a present for my Mom! (Which, by the way, she loved!)

After dinner, we did some more interviews and eventually headed back. (Well we were each waiting for our interviews, we had a paper airplane contest in our holding room! It was pretty funny. Poor Mama Christine was in charge of keeping us quiet, but that was a tall order for a group of extroverted Americans!) On the bus ride back, I noticed Jessica looked pretty down, so I went up to cheer her up. It’s been a pretty tough episode for her. Between helping kill the fish in yesterday’s competition and being the focus of tons of interviews over it, based on her beliefs, she’s pretty worn out. In fact, I think several people are worn down and have given hints that they’ve enjoyed their time here, but could go home now and be content, if that’s the way it unfolded. Even for me, I found today was my first day to really hit hard that I need some time with my family! I miss you guys terribly! (Time to get refocused!)

One of my favorite things is to see Alf and the European
portions that are set in front of him. (Typically, not Alf-sized portions.)

Due to eating early and not the greatest food, Mama Brita offered to take us out for another dinner. We all went out around 8:00 to a local restaurant. I had a small appetizer for my meal. I also was going to abstain from beer and try to be healthier, but they had a dark one that I wanted to try, so that mindset changed pretty quickly. (When beers are about $12 to $17 per pint, I’m having a hard time turning down a free one!)

This is when things took a turn for the crazy! Alf decided he wanted to go to a karaoke bar! Everyone, including the Mamas, decided to join him! (Except for Austin. He wanted to go back to the hotel and study. He’s definitely the most focused on the game at hand and has incredible will power, avoiding all temptations that wouldn’t help win!)

There must have been something about Johnathan's
singing that influenced Mary Caryl to start dancing
on him! (Okay, that's not true. If there was ever music
of any kind, Mary Caryl would find someone to dance on!)

At the other side of Stavanger, we found a basement bar that was doing karaoke that night. We were the first ones there (around 10:00), but had no problem getting the party started! Alf got us kicked off and the dude can sing! Really, the guy is extremely well rounded and likeable. There’s not much that may stop him in this show, other than maybe his age. After Alf, CJ did a song, which was pretty good. Barbara performed her first ever karaoke song, which was Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach.” It was possibly the worst song I’ve ever heard, but she knew it was bad and just went for it! I was really proud of her and we all cheered her on! Tara and Dana did a song together (surprise!), followed by Johnathan doing a song that involved him singing in a falsetto voice throughout the whole song. For him, it was much like Barbara. He knew that it wasn’t what the bar wanted to hear, but he just went for it and stayed confident in himself! Good for him! Jessica did a really funny song while she knowingly was awful and sober, but didn’t care. Then, for the first time in front of these people, I let it all loose and did my thing, singing Madonna’s “Material Girl.” I had several comments about how funny it was and how they didn’t know I had that side. Felt good to let loose!

A local......and Mary Caryl.

By this point, the bar was starting to fill in with a crazy assortment of different people! Barbara and Jessica headed out after we all had a turn at Karaoke, Mary Caryl was taken home by one of the Mama’s, after doing some of her “special dancing” in front of all of the locals. (At this point, she had several guys eyeing her and trying to bring her drinks. It was best that she headed home and had an escort.) Tara and Dana headed to the hotel around 1:00, but not before Dana almost started a fight with a guy. However, he was quickly talked down and knew that it was best to leave. The last ones standing were C.J. (who is in the elimination challenge tomorrow), Johnathan, Alf, Amy and myself. We took off around 2:00 A.M. and had a great time. There would be some great stories to be told the next day. (Example: At one point, some drunk guy was hitting on Amy, so I stepped in and played her husband so he’d move on. That was pretty fun. It was also pretty funny to watch all the 30’s and 40’s women checking out Alf and his dangly goatee! Then, there was the less-than-best story that involved a giant! Amy and Tara were out dancing on the dance floor, when some 7 foot, beast of a man (think Andre the Giant, only Norwegian!), who was also very drunk, started trying to dance with them. They looked uncomfortable, so I decided to step in, by way of dancing with him! This was a brilliant idea, until I realized the pure strength of this ox! We were ballroom-style dancing, when this monster-of-a-man grabbed me by my shoulders, flipped me around, and started “freaking” my backside, along with trying to put both giant paws on my “front side”! That was the end of the dancing and the end of the night for us! It was time to go!)

Andre the Giant! This guy was huge and this photo must have been taken
right before I ran screaming after getting man-handled!

That was it for the day. A slow start to the day, but an absolutely hilarious ending! Good times! Time for bed and a full night’s sleep. Those not competing don’t have to meet until 1:00!!

Day 19 Over!

In our holding room after eating the lutefisk. It

was a Mama's job to keep us quiet, which was

pretty much impossible as we created games, like

this paper-airplane contest, to avoid boredom

between shots/interviews.

Alf was very impressive with the mic!

Jessica wouldn't make it past the first

round of American Idol, but still put on

quite the show!

Johnathan had some skills with the

mic as well!

Mary Caryl wasn't afraid to try the

mic either.

Barbara was probably the worst act of

the night, but she knew it and went with

it! For that reason, she was my favorite

act of the night!

C.J. has some talent as well!

The last standing at karaoke night!

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Day 18 - May 10, 2012 (Episode 3)

Today was a……for lack of a better term, a miserable day!!

We got started not too early, but still early, 9:00. Knowing that I wasn’t competing, I decided to go for a run. I was told about a lake that was about a mile or so away and was about 3 miles around. However, again, the maps weren’t great. (We’ll need to work on that, Norway!) Knowing the issues I had in Oslo, I got started following the map, but was much more aware of my surroundings this time, so I could get myself back, if the map wasn’t helpful. Well, the maps weren’t helpful, and soon, I was just making my own trail up. Somehow, as I was just making a decision to turn back, I ended up running into the lake. I made my way around it and headed back to the hotel. It was about 5 miles in total and about the furthest I’ve ever run in one run! Goes to show how focused I am on winning this show!

After showering and breakfast, we were off for another day of filming. We ended up driving under a fjord and arriving at the island Bru. (Funny note. Every time we drive in a tunnel, Austin tells everyone “Don’t be a (starts with b and rhymes with stitch)”, then challenges them to hold their breath for the length of the tunnel. Made for a fun time during our long drives, but suffice it to say, he, nor anyone else, was able to do it for this tunnel!)

The Power Rangers! Dana, Johnathan, Jessica and Austin rocking their
rain gear and messing around while waiting for our next shoot.

After some waiting around, we were introduced to our next competition. Both teams would have to 1) grab 8 large salmon from a holding tank with their bare hands, 2) run them to a cleaning station, 3) hit them in the head with a hammer-like object, 4) cut their gills to bleed them out, 5) put them in a “bleed out” water tank for three minutes, 6) slice them open to gut them, 7) put them on ice in one of two boxes, and 8) run those boxes to a large truck. The team to finish first wins and is safe from the elimination challenge! The only catch to all of this was that it was extremely rainy, windy and cold! It sucks and would not make this challenge any easier!

Members of the Blue Team, ready to kill some fish!

We did our opening shot with Henriette and some interviews, then broke for lunch. Due to where we were, we just did our lunch back on the bus, so we could get warm. However, it wasn’t long before we were back out in the cold. After some further instructions and getting dressed in fisherman outfits, the game was on. Again, I would stand on the side and watch it all unfold. Our team, the Red Team, would get a 10 second head start and a closer tank, due to our win yesterday. Henriette got us going and off they went!

Ready for another day of cheering!

We all assumed that grabbing the fish would be the hardest part of the competition, but we were all wrong. Both teams were able to get the fish out pretty quickly and get them to the cleaning station, where it was complete chaos! There was only one “hammer” for each team, so there were people waiting on it, all while their fish is flopping around in their arms and on the table. It even got to the point where we noticed Johnathan, who couldn’t wait for the hammer, punching his fish in the head with his bare hand! Very funny!

Seeing that I have to find some way to help out, my job was to count the fish that had been brought to the table. As soon as we had 8, I screamed to stop grabbing fish and finishing the “bleeding” portion of the challenge. Soon, all 8 fish were knocked out, cut in the gills and in the bleed-out tank. It looked as though we had just increased our 10 second head start to 30 seconds. We were rolling!

The three minutes that it took for them to bleed out seemed to take forever, but we were given the go and they started grabbing fish from the blood-filled tank. A couple of the team members would grab the fish from the tank, pass them to two members that would gut them, and pass them to the final member, who would fill the boxes, with the initial two members helping out with that, as soon as all 8 were out of the tank.

We packed our two boxes up, then CJ ran them over to the truck! Our team exploded in celebration and Henriette screamed, “Congratulations Red Team!” We were safe from elimination……or so we thought!

The Blue Team immediately starts screaming, “No, we did!” and we look over to see that Austin had already placed his two boxes on his truck and was walking away when CJ put ours up. It was quickly confirmed by a producer that the Blue Team did in fact finish first! It was such a chaotic and confusing scene that the Blue Team wasn’t sure if they had won or not, so didn’t celebrate because Henriette didn’t acknowledge them getting to the truck! In the meantime, Henriette saw our cheering and just assumed we had won. Oops!

Obviously, we were pretty upset. In fact, I thought Dana was going to lose it! He seemed really upset and ready to blow, which was not helped at all when the producers asked us to film the end again, so the TV audience could have a less confusing finish. What a crazy turn of events! We went from complete enthusiasm to devastation, as the Red Team would be going to the elimination challenge.

We followed everything up with move interviews and "pick ups" (reshooting/acting out different footage from the competition to get additional angles), which really sucked at this point. Everyone was freezing, soaked and smelled of fish! They let us change, which I ended up giving most of my clothes to everyone else, since I was nowhere near as bad as they were. Still, we were all having a hard time getting warm.

A shot of cast members doing "Pick-Ups", which is where we shoot
different sequences after the actual competition, so that they can edit
the footage together, to get different angles.

After interviews, we went back to the hotel and had some showers. While everyone was showering, I went and bought another translation book. (Need to keep working at this language thing!) Once everyone was clean, we went out for dinner, this time with the whole crew. It was another great dinner! Definitely, the biggest surprise of this experience so far was how many times we would be taken out for really nice dinners in really nice restaurants!

After dinner, we went back to the hotel for more information. After we were done with information, seven of us went out for a drink. Jessica and Mary Caryl stayed back to go to sleep, which is what they usually do. Dana and Tara stayed back to do whatever it is they do. That’s definitely the elephant in the room! What’s up with Dana and Tara?! Even the crew is starting to ask. (Remember, Tara is married!)

Okay, time for bed. Word!

Day 18 Over!

C.J. looking more and more like a

true Norwegian....or maybe just a fisherman!

Dana and Alf with "the coconut". Tomorrow's

journal entry gives the details on this interesting story.

The coolest bottle opener ever!

Alf and Dana posing prior to the competition.

Another shot of the Power Rangers (minus Dana).

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

Day 17 - May 9, 2012 (Episode 3)

Today was our best day so far! Helicopter flights, a day on the world’s largest oil rig and another victory for my team!

We started the day early, leaving the hotel at 7:15. We immediately went ot the heliport or whatever you call it. After going through security check and hanging out for about an hour, we received our special flying suits. In case the chopper went down, you have to have special suits to protect you in those freezing waters! They looked pretty funny and covered you head to toe, but I’ll sacrifice looks for safety!

Not sure why I feel like a rap artist
in this suit, but I couldn't help the pose!

Looking pretty fly in our special suits!

After a safety video and some prepping by our director that week, Eli (there are three directors and they rotate each week on who is in charge), we boarded the helicopter. All 11 of us and two camera crews on one chopper! It was absolutely incredible! Such a cool feeling and great views! We even had some energizing music to pump us up, playing through our headphones.

One of our three directors, Eli, giving us
final instruction before we set off
on our helicopter ride!

Goose and Maverick!

After about 30 minutes over nothing but blue waters, out of nowhere we started noticing large ships and big oil rigs. Next thing we know, we’re circling one and come in for our landing. Are you kidding me?! Did we just land a helicopter on an oil right off the coast of Norway, in the middle of the sea?! Crazy!

We're on an oil rig!!!

Following landing, we did some filming of us getting off the helicopter, as well as some shots from the chopper of us on the landing pad, meeting with Henrietta. Next, was a security meeting and tour of some of the facilities. It was nuts. I felt like I was in a movie! (Oh wait, I’m on TV.) Finally, we made it back to another ramp and were introduced to our next team competition. I was teamed up with Dana, Tara, Mary Caryl, CJ and Jessica and we would be the Red Team. The Blue Team would be Austin, Amy, Johnathan, Alf, and Barbara. Unfortunately, because we had an odd number of people and I had the Troll, I would not be allowed to participate in the competition. The safety of the Troll is great, but it really sucks knowing I won’t be able to help my team! Henriette than revealed the details of the challenge.

A look at the first challenge and how it was all set up.

There would be two stations, with both teams working one of the stations and the swapping places and doing the other station. The first station, involved a team pumping oil from a huge oil drum and filling 15 buckets as fast as possible. While they are doing that, the other team is at the other station, which involves finding as many Norwegian coins as possible from the bottom of a large container filled with a mud-like substance (that was supposed to resemble oil). You would only have as much time as it takes for the first team to pump the 15 buckets of oil to gather as many of those coins. The team to collect the most money would win and more importantly gets a head start in the next competition.

Mary Caryl getting interviewed. These poor, tall Norwegian directors
had to position themselves lower, so that we would be looking just
outside of the camera lens. Pretty funny when it was Amy or Mary Caryl!

After interviews, the competition got under way. Our team, the Red Team, started on the pumping station with the Blue Team digging for coins. However, because I was exempt from elimination this week and there were an odd number of players, I just had to stand with Henriette and cheer. They gave us the go ahead and off both teams got started. Dana pumped the oil the whole time for our team and did a great job. The rest of the team tried to form an assembly line with one person handing an empty bucket to another member. That person would hold it under the pump and when it was filled to the marked line, it would be handed to another team member who would run it to a designated area. During the competition, I couldn’t stand not doing anything to help my team, other than cheer, so I became the “bucket checker”, checking each bucket to make sure it was filled properly. I actually think I helped us out, because I spotted a couple of buckets that weren’t filled all the way, which may have cost our team a lot more time.

After what seemed like a short amount of time, we had our 15 buckets. It seemed like we went about as fast as we could, thanks to Dana, but it was hard to tell. Although, when we looked over, it looked as though the Blue Team had collected a ton of coins. Of course, they weren’t going to let us know what the total was until after both teams had gone, so they could make the announcement more dramatic.

Alf getting interviewed after the first competition.

After doing some interviews and getting the area cleaned up (that whole process took about an hour!), the teams switched places and it would now be our turn to collect coins. They gave us the go and again we got started (again with me on the side with Henriette). Dana, Tara, Mary Caryl, CJ, and Jessica got to work, digging for whatever coins they could find. The catch was that they had to wear these large, rubber gloves, which made it really hard to grab the coins. Plus, the depth of the “oil” was longer than the length of the gloves, so they started filling with that mud-like substance! The best they could do was to scoop the coins to the edge of the bin and somehow pull them up and over onto one of their gloves. Then, getting them over to the can that holds the coins was difficult as well. Everything was slippery at this point and they were losing balance, causing them to drop many of the coins they had found. Because I had to find a way to help out, I was keeping my team updated on how many buckets the Blue Team had filled. As the Blue Team was getting close to 15, our team felt as though they had exhausted the amount of coins in the bin and started trying to pick up the ones they had dropped. Again, this was virtually impossible to do, seeing that they had to keep their thick, rubber gloves on (Mary Caryl got yelled at by a Producer when she forgot and tried to take her gloves off), and pick up this thin, slippery coin. Before you knew it, the Blue Team had finished their 15 buckets and the time was up. It went pretty quickly, although, it did seem as though we may have had a little more time with the coins than the Blue Team did.

We followed everything up with more interviews and watched as the crew counted the coins off in one of the corners. It was interesting though. We noticed that they recounted a couple of times and then watched as one of the members was showing a piece of paper to some of the other crew members, each time met with a surprised/amazed look on their face. It looked as though this was going to be an incredible blowout or an amazingly close competition.

We got together for results and Henriette fired some questions at us. After doing the typical Q and A, she built up to the reveal. There was the mandatory, extremely long pause, while the cameras slowly zoomed in on each one of us, then she made the announcement. One team had outdone the other by 13 Kroner, the equivalent of $2!! A relatively, incredibly small amount, based on the fact that each team had collected over 3,400 Kroner (or $600)! Wow! That team was……….the Red Team!! We went nuts, knowing that we had just secured a head start in tomorrow’s team competition!

Dinner with the crew of the oil rig.

After doing our final interviews for the day, we broke for dinner. As with lunch, we got to eat in the oil rig’s dining area, along with a lot of the oil rig’s crew. There was pretty good food with a decent amount of options, so we were pretty satisfied. After dinner, we had a little time to kill, so we found the rig’s entertainment room which had a projector used for watching movies or playing video games. Several us stayed there and played some Mortal Kombat for 20 minutes or so, but unfortunately our time was cut short and we had to leave. It was nice having that free time, which allowed us to see the inter-workings of the ship, as well as what those workers do day in and day out. (We found out that all the workers fly in, work two straight weeks, 12 hours on and 12 hours off, then fly home for a four week break! Not bad, considering the starting wage on the ship was $90,000!!)

About to board the helicopter for our flight back.

We boarded the helicopter and made our way back to the mainland, watching as the oil rig and its surrounding ships grew smaller and smaller out of our windows. On the way back, as it was on the way in, they were playing music in our headphones. Although, it was funny that the music changed from the pump-up music that we heard on the way in, to the more somber, Adele-type music that fit the mood of everyone after a long and exciting day. It was a dream-like day, but we were wiped out!

Eventually, we got back to our hotel around 10:00, met for some quick information with our Mama, then off to bed. What a day! I just took a helicopter to an oil rig off the coast of Norway!!! Who gets a chance to do that?! We’ll just have to see what they have in store for us tomorrow! (By the way, found out that the production company was working on getting the show on an oil rig for the first two seasons of the show, but it hadn’t worked out until now. Along with that, we were supposed to stay the night on the oil rig, but some issues came up and they couldn’t make it happen. Too bad! That would have been quite the night!)

Day 17 Over!