Alt for Norge Daily Journal: 2012-09-23

Day 27 - May 19, 2012 (Episode 4)

Today was a rest day. We practically would have the whole day to do whatever we liked. Perfect for an opportunity to do some sight-seeing! As much time as we spend in these great cities, it’s rare that the show will allow us to go do some true sight-seeing, since we just don’t have extra time. With that, seeing the city would be my plan, however that would be about as far as it would get!

We started the day by changing hotels. We would end up going to what will now be our new home-base between episodes. It wasn’t too far from the Grand Hotel and it’s still in the heart of the city, so it makes for a great location. In fact, the hotel has a nice gym, nice restaurant, and some other nice amenities. The only catch is that again, we have to share a small size queen bed with another guy.

After getting to the hotel, we dropped off our bags and went to lunch. Again, my intentions were to go sight-seeing with Johnathan after lunch, but Alf had some insight that changed my current thinking. Recently, I’ve been thinking that I should start eating more salads, instead of the meat and carbs that seems to be served with every meal. Along with that, I decided that I should start passing on the free beer that we get with most of our meals, since I’m starting to put some weight back on and I may not be in as great of shape as I need to be. I told this to Alf, to which he responded, “That’s the stuff you can do at home. How many times are you going to be in Norway on someone else’s dime? You might as well enjoy every moment of it!” He’s right! I don’t have to overeat or get drunk every night, but if it’s not going to affect how I do on the show, why not enjoy it! With that, Alf, C.J. and I ordered the restaurant’s largest beer, and after lunch, instead of sight-seeing, our Mama for the day, “Mama Christine Two” (a substitute Mama for the day, since the other three had the day off), took us to her favorite day-drinking spot! Christine, Alf, C.J. and I spent our next three hours sitting at an outdoor café talking, drinking, and watching the day go by. I still plan on going to see some sights at some point, but as you know, this is exactly how I like to vacation! Just sharing some beer and stories with good friends! Great times and I’m glad I did it!

We're some real G's! CJ, Alf and I, beginning our alcoholism!

Next came dinner with Mama Brita. We went to a Thai restaurant and I really liked it! (I don’t think I have had Thai before and I’m not sure if Indianapolis has any great spots, but if they do, we need to find them! It may have been my beers from the afternoon, but it was really good!) After dinner, I really wanted to see a sporting event. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything going on in town. However, there was a huge soccer match on TV that night. While everyone else went back to the hotel, Brita, Johnathan, Amy, C.J. and I went to a bar to watch it. The place was packed and we ended up standing to watch the first half. I was frustrated with that bar, so I decided to walk and see if I could find another bar with some seats. On my way, I heard the sound of live music, so I decided to check it out!

The place was a small club and had a very artsy feel to it. I made my way through the crowd to the bar, ordered a drink, but discovered that my credit card wouldn’t work there (which seems to happen at every other place we go). Fortunately, some guy noticed that I was struggling and offered to buy it for me! This, of course, started a great conversation. He, myself and two of his friends hung out for the next couple of hours. His name was Amund and he has a three year old boy, so we had a lot to talk about. I felt bad about him having to buy me a beer, so I made a quick run to find an ATM, so I could buy him a round in return. On the way, every corner had some guy trying to sell you weed. I was told to not make eye contact with any of them, which I adhered to. However, when I got to the ATM, I noticed that one guy was tracking me from behind and another guy was getting closer from the other direction. I was pretty sure that I was about to get mugged, so I prepped myself to start swinging. Fortunately, my money came pretty quickly and the guys hung back a little bit. I quickly parted the area and made my way back to the bar.

After a couple more rounds of beers with my new friends, the band wrapped up their show, which started to empty the bar. I took that as a good time to say my goodbyes and headed back to the hotel. I got back around 1:00 and went straight to bed. I may not have seen all the sights of Oslo, but I did get to spend a lot of time hanging with Oslo’s people. I’m good with that! Good times, good night!

Day 27 Over!!

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

Day 26 - May 18, 2012 (Episode 4)

Today was our last day of filming for Episode 4. Not a whole lot happened, but there were some interesting moments.

After a short night of sleep, I woke at 8:30, but wasn’t feeling that great after my night of drinking, so I went for an old cure, exercise. I headed out for a three mile run that involved lapping the Royal Palace twice! Some very nice scenery surrounds the Palace and makes for a great run/walk. However, I don’t think many people run through the city streets, since I received multiple odd looks as I approached/left the Palace area. After getting back, showering and getting back in my Bunad, I met with everyone else in the lobby around 10:00. It was then that C.J. shared his story from the night before. Along with buying a lesbian drinks all night, he returned to the hotel around 4:00 and had issues getting into his room. Instead of figuring out another way to get in, he decided it would be easiest to just sleep in the hallway!! Here, in the Grand Hotel, where some of the most famous people in the world have walked the halls, C.J. was making his bed! I love that guy! Even better, at 6:00, he was woken by a hotel employee who simply and politely said, “Sir, you can’t sleep in the hall.” Ha! Eventually, he figured out how to get into his room and was able to catch a few more hours of sleep, but still was definitely not feeling that great throughout the remainder of the day!

After we all shared a laugh with C.J., they brought us in to a special room in the hotel where there was a breakfast set up and cameras ready to film. We were given instructions on how to reenact a Syttende Mai breakfast that we never had. A little strange, since we had to remember not to mention what we had seen and had to discuss what we thought may happen that day. They even had us take several takes, since we were lacking the energy the director was looking for, due to most of us being hung over! It was also interesting to be filming this scene with Dana there, since he was eliminated the day before, but since we were shooting out of order, he needed to sit in with us. I have to give him props though, he handled it really well. Probably much better than I would have!

After breakfast, we headed to the rooftop bar to do our closing scene, which also involves handing out the Norwegian Spirit Award. We did our typical closing scene conversing about the day as a group, doing several cheers for the person eliminated (Dana), and then Henriette comes in to hand out the Spirit Award Troll. This week, as many of us had guessed, it went to Amy, due to the incident that she had after the street performance. I don’t think that’s the only reason that she received it, but it was definitely reason enough.

After the award was handed out, director Kristian asked us to do our Bunad rap that we had written, on camera!! We had only practiced it twice through as a group, so I wasn’t sure how it would go. Plus, last night, when we were writing our verses in the hotel room, Dana was our “beat-box” and was able to give us some good rhythm to rap to. Since this scene was happening after Dana had been eliminated, he couldn’t be there, which meant that hung-over C.J. was going to do it. There wasn’t anything we could do about it, so we just went for it!

They didn’t have a good transition for it, so Kristian just told me to ask C.J. for a beat. With that, awkwardly, I looked at C.J. and said, “give me a beat!” Next thing you know, the whole group is standing up, around a table and getting in the groove, with C.J. beat boxing in the back. I started the song with the chorus, then passed it around the group, so that each one of us could rap the verse that they wrote. Some of the verses were pretty terrible, some of them weren’t too bad, but overall, it was a lot of fun! We ended up being able to get it done in only two takes and the only reason that we had to stop and start over was poor C.J. actually started to throw up while trying to keep up the beat! I doubt it will be aired, but that would have made for some great TV! We ended the song back with the chorus and a lot of yelling. It might not have been the greatest rap song ever, but it seemed to be catchy enough, since we caught many crew members singing it throughout the rest of the day. One of the crew members even said that they thought it could become really popular! Kind of like the American Idol guy that wrote “Pants on the Ground”. How crazy would that be?!

Saying goodbye to Dana. Dude was a free-spirit and
made the trip/show very interesting!

When we were done filming, we went out to lunch and said our final goodbye’s to Dana. Everyone had their pictures and hugs with him and said Aloha. However, it was interesting to see everyone, both cast and crew, sticking around to see how he and Tara would say goodbye. They had a long embrace, whispering into each other’s ears and then, as Dana went to leave, Tara lunged in for one more hug and placed a kiss right on his lips! I guess we all knew what was going on, but it was just strange to see it happening, since each one of us kept thinking, “that’s a married woman!” To each their own, I guess.

A look at the crew setting up for interviews with
Kristian (director), Stian (sound guy) and Odd (camera man).

After saying goodbye, we went off to a park to do some “reality day” interviews (the ones that seem to last 30 minutes to an hour for each cast member). It took about three hours to get it all done, but gave me some good time to catch up on some sleep on the park bench. After that, the cast went to dinner at an Italian place. Our waiter was an absolute ass! (This is one big difference between America and Norway. Gratuity is very minimal in Norway and because of that, it seems as though most waiters don’t seem to care. I wouldn’t say that they were all jerks like tonight’s waiter, but they definitely do not work very hard for their customers.) That rough dinner, plus most of us still being hung over really brought the mood down. It was soon apparent that everyone needed to go to bed, so we all headed back to the hotel. However, because it was Jessica’s birthday, Amy, Austin and I took a walk around the city to find her some ice cream. After walking several blocks, we settled on a convenience store that was right next to our hotel. We hung out for a little bit, but there wasn’t much energy, so we all said goodnight and headed back to our rooms. Time for bed!

Day 26 Over!!

Throwing up the Shakas!

Dana and Jessica doing some

final yoga before heading home.

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

Day 25 - May 17, 2012 (Episode 4)

Today is Syttende Mai (May 17^th). This is Norway’s Independence Day and their largest and most important holiday throughout the year! Today was going to be a fun day and it definitely lived up to the hype!

The note that was left with my Bunad!

We stared the day of with a fake wakeup. Even though we had already gotten up, showered and had breakfast, they had us get back in bed and then filmed us “waking up” and finding our Bunads, which are a traditional Norwegian formal wear. Not only that, but they filmed us putting them on, which was weird since we basically stripped to our boxers on camera! (Doesn’t help that I’m doing this right next to Austin, aka Mr. Muscles!)

Austin and I rocking our Bunads shortly after "waking" to find them.

After filming us waking up, we were filmed walking out into the streets of Oslo. It was only 10:00 A.M. and already the streets were filling up! There were even small parades going on. It was pretty exciting and cool to see so many others wearing their Bunads!

We walked about ¾ mile and ended up at the Royal Palace, along with a huge crowd! Turns out there will be a parade that goes around town and in front of the Palace, where the King, Queen and the rest of the Royal Family will be watching from their balcony! Even better, we were going to get front row seats! What an experience!

The King, Queen and the rest of the Royal Family!

We walked through the crowd to a marked off section that was saved for us. About 30 minutes after that, the Royal Family came out of the Palace balcony. They did the formal waving to the crowd as you would expect, then took their places. They parade then commenced!

We weren’t able to stay for the whole thing, since we had some other things to film, but were able to stay for about half of the celebration. From what we watched, it looked like most of the parade consisted of every local school marching their band by the King along with some dancing. It was a pretty fun time!

I make a Bunad sexy! (Maybe not, but that was part
of my verse from the Bunad rap!

Next was lunch at a local restaurant. Pretty good food and beer, but my mind was occupied with trying to write a rap song called, “I’m in a Bunad!” Not sure why or where it got started, but it seemed to have a pretty catchy chorus! I would end up spending the rest of the day trying to refine it and write some additional verses. Good times!

After lunch, they did the introductions to the individual, elimination challenge. Those involved were filmed getting the intros, but the rest of us had to remain off camera, so we had to be filled in by one of the Mamas as to what the competition would be. The contestants would have one hour to prepare a Syttende Mai speech and then give that speech at a local fair, in front of a couple hundred people! The speech and winner would be chosen by two judges, both local guys that are apparently pretty high up in the political world! This would be a tough challenge and one I’m glad I’m not in!

How cute was this girl, who was hanging out
at the local fair that day! Seeing her definnitely
made me miss my kids even more!

While they prepared their speeches, the rest of us went to a small fair that was being put on by a local school. There were a few hundred people watching a talent show on a small stage, playing games, and eating some homemade food! It was a lot of fun and they filmed our team, the winning team, go out and interact with all the locals, as well as play the games and eat the food. I especially had fun, because I got to play with some local kids! (I’ve definitely been missing my girls lately and needed this!) After that, the contestants of the individual challenge came down to give their speeches.

Henriette did a small introduction to the crowd and tried to get them pumped up. They had those not in the contest stand near the side of the stage with the judges, then up came Dana. He surprised me and delivered a very powerful speech that I wouldn’t have expected. Johnathan was next to go. He had written a speech that was very focused on the beauty of Norway along with some historical facts. In terms of presentation, it wasn’t too bad. Alf would go third and had a lot of good content, but probably struggled the most in his delivery. Finally, Amy wrapped it all up. Apparently, she was on her debate team in high school, so the stage was not an issue for her. However, I felt that her content was probably the worst out of the four.

When it was all over, most of us had no idea on how it was going to go. The one thing that we were positive about was that Dana would be safe and most likely, Amy and Alf would be in the bottom two. We were wrong!

Henriette and I looking stylish in our Bunads
while waiting for the results.

About an hour later, we filmed the results. The two politicians stepped up and said that Alf and Amy would be safe! They stepped over and left Johnathan and Dana in the bottom two. After a brief explanation, they told Dana that his speech was very powerful and they would “follow him into battle”, but that it was not very Norwegian, especially for Syttende Mai. With that, Dana would be eliminated and Johnathan was safe! That was our first big “shocker!” This just goes to show how important it is to know your audience! I’ll need to remember that as we move forward. Dana’s going home!

It will be interesting to see how things move forward as a group. One thing that I think a lot of us were disappointed about was that we would always hang out as a group in our free time, but most of that time, Dana and Tara would be off on their own. We felt as if they were really missing out on the fun the group was having. Along with that, another positive side to Dana heading home, he’s proven himself to be a pretty strong competitor, so that’s one less competitor that I would have to beat out!

After the results and once Tara was able to stop crying (she was a wreck after the announcement), we did interviews and then the cast headed back to get changed and get some dinner. We went out to a Chinese restaurant and it became completely apparent that Dana and Tara were not going to keep things a secret anymore. (By the way, because we had to film scenes out of order this week, Dana needed to stick around for one more night, even though he was eliminated.) At that point, they were pretty open about their feelings for each other, even exchanging a kiss and holding hands as we left the restaurant!

I had to take a photo of my dinner that night. The coolest
Chinese dish I've ever been served!

After dinner, Jessica wanted to go out, since it would be her birthday at midnight. She had mentioned that she wanted to go to a gay-club, so she could dance and wouldn’t have to worry about guys hitting on her. Everyone was gung-ho, even Alf! Mama Christine suggested a place, so we made our way.

The MAMAS! The three of them joined us for the beginning
stages of what would be a really fun night! (As you can see,
they're a pretty funny crew! Ane on the left, Brita in the
middle and Christine to the right.)

We arrived at a bar that was only a couple blocks from our hotel and started to get our drink on. It was pretty fun, but we all quickly realized how expensive it was, so we made the decision to do some pre-partying back at the hotel and then make our way back to this club later in the evening.

We found ourselves back in Johnathan’s room (who got his own room somehow!) and cracked a bottle of whiskey. For the next hour, we hung out, all of us, had several drinks, and each of us ended up writing our own verse to “I’m in a Bunad!” with hopes that we could convince the film crew to record it the next day! (They’re having us put our Bunads back on so that we can film some more Syttende Mai scenes.) The hotel room was an incredibly good time and was probably the most fun that we had as a group! Fortunately, things got even better when Mama Christine came in to say that she could hear us halfway across the hotel and that we should make our way back to the club, which we did.

Alf giving Jessica a lift as we sing her Happy Birthday at midnight!

All of us, except for Johnathan and Barbara, went back to the gay club around 11:00. By this point, the club had really filled in and the dance floor was packed. At midnight, we were all on the dance floor and Alf picked up Jessica so that we could all sing to her! We continued to dominate the dance floor, doing our best impersonation of The Jersey Shore and fist pumping the night away! The night continued on and the drinks continued to flow! It was a really good time with many of us staying out pretty late. Dana and Tara were the first to leave, then Alf and Austin escorted Jessica back to the hotel. C.J. and I stayed back to make sure that Amy was safe, who was absolutely loving the dance floor! (Funny story here: C.J. spent much of the night buying this one girl drinks. Apparently, he forgot where he was and was disappointed when she introduced him to her girlfriend! Ha!) Eventually, Amy and I headed back, getting back around 2:30 A.M.. Great times and a great way to celebrate my first Syttende Mai!!

Day 25 Over! We’re down to 9!

The walk up to the Palace. The street

is just starting to fill in.

Amy and I posing in our Bunads!

A look back at the crowd as they start to fill in.

Waiting for the King! (Don't mind Austin.)

The cast hanging outside of the Royal Palace!

One of the performers at the local fair that day.

He was a dancing machine!

This kid was following us everywhere

at the fair. He became a good friend!

Amy with her newest fan!

I know it's hard to tell, but the

model is in the middle.

Dana supplied us some special Ron Jeremy

whiskey back in the hotel during our preparty!

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

Day 24 - May 16, 2012 (Episode 4)

Oh, yet another crazy day! This show is stressing me out! The culmination of these stressful challenges, missing home and a ad dinner almost had me boil over!

We started the day at 10:00 after some breakfast and a good night’s sleep! The cast and one of our Mama’s walked a little bit from our hotel and found the camera crew setting up in the middle of a downtown Oslo street. After another hour of getting set up, Henriette revealed our next team challenge. We were all really hoping it was the Russ! It even had the look like it was going to be, but that quickly change when Henriette revealed a table full of musical instruments. Our challenge was to do whatever type of street performance we could, to raise as much money as possible within 30 minutes (35 for our team, since we won yesterday’s challenge). Although it seemed like it would be a lot of fun, we were all pretty disappointed since we were really hoping for the Russ! However, for this competition, I wasn’t worried at all! Being in a crowd and entertaining for 30 minutes? Not a problem! I’ve been doing that for the past 12 years!

Both teams were going to work the same street, but at different times. The Red Team was to go first and got started after we had lunch (about 2:00). In the meantime, we sat in that same restaurant and waited. The one catch was that they didn’t want our team strategizing, since the other team didn’t get that extra time to strategize, and they want to keep it as fair as possible. (Another dirty secret: Austin, Tara and I just couldn’t do it! We used any opportunity possible to strategize. Whether it was sneaking off to the bathroom to talk or whispering things when the Mamas weren’t looking, we couldn’t help ourselves!)

After an hour or so, the Red Team returned. They didn’t look overly excited, but you never know. They just finished their interviews, so they may have used that time to settle down. It was our turn!

A look down Karl Johans Gate (Street) from the area
where we did our Street Performance. Not too bad a view!

We headed out to the designated spot on the street. Once there, they filmed us “strategizing” for 15 minutes. We discussed everything in detail on camera, but it felt as though our plans were already made. Hmmm. I wonder why? Anyways, it was on and the director said, “Your time starts now!”

Our plan was to have C.J. and Barbara play some form of rhythmic, danceable beat. Austin, Tara and I would gather a crowd and get them to come dance and sing with us. This, of course, would bring in more onlookers, which we’d hit up for money. All that with a hope to hit up a big spender to put us over the top!

I got us started with a loud introduction! Quickly, we realized that this wasn’t a typical American crowd. As soon as I raised my voice, the crowd backed away! The more yelling we did, the further they backed. Fortunately, we did find a group of young African students that came in and danced with us! I thought that this would be the thing to get us going and the crowd would join in! Nope.

We were trying everything, but nothing was working. The more noise, the more distant. Plus, any time the Norwegians would see the cameras, they’d shy away even more. It wasn’t long before we knew we had to change strategy and have the most basic performance and just solicit the heck out of anyone that walked by. C.J. kept playing and the four of us hit up anyone that walked by! We even convinced Austin to take off his shirt and Tara to kiss random guys (on the cheek)! We tried as hard as we could, but it sucked and was incredibly hard to get anyone to come anywhere close, let alone give us any donations. It was definitely the most frustrating thing we’ve done so far!

When it was all over, we were all exhausted. I wasn’t too happy with how we did, but I was just hoping that it was just as hard on the other group. The only thing is that the other group had Johnathan, Amy and Dana, all performers, so who knows.

After interviews, we set up for the results. Quickly, Henriette let us know that each team had collections in the 3-digit area. However, one team beat the other by a 3-digit number! Not sure where that put us, but after a pause, Henriette said, “Congratulations Blue Team!” We won again and would avoid another elimination challenge!

We found out later how the numbers broke down. Our team had collected a little over 600 Kroner (around $100). The Red Team only collected a little over 100 Kroner (about $20)! We destroyed them! I guess the their team, being filled with performers, were so focused on putting on a good performance and assumed that it would bring them in plenty of donations, that they didn’t work very hard to solicit the bystanders for money. We, knowing that we didn’t have any other performers outside of C.J., knew that we had to do everything we could to raise the funds. With that, Alf, Amy, Dana and Johnathan would have to compete in the elimination challenge tomorrow. (Jessica would be immune, due to having the troll. We also would be doing things a little differently this week, with doing the elimination challenge on Day 3, whereas it’s usually on Day 4.)

While doing some interviews after the results, we also found out some more interesting facts from the competition. Our team couldn’t help but notice that Amy was in tears and very emotional after the results. Being as close as we were, we all tried to console her, especially Tara. Amy was very quick to want nothing to do with any of us, which really upset Tara, who kept pushing to try to help. Pretty soon, it was too much for Amy and she snapped at Tara, which caused Tara to start tearing up. It was a crazy scene and everyone was extremely emotional! Soon, we found out what was wrong with Amy. It wasn’t the losing of the competition, but we found out that she had done some of her belly dancing during their street performance. Apparently, some local came up after it was over and got in her face calling her a whore and a slut for the way that she was dancing in public! He continued to berate her until Johnathan got in his face and told him to leave! Understandably, she was very upset! (By the way, this response was very unlike the Norwegians that we’ve met.)

Once the scene calmed down and we wrapped up our interviews, we had a little downtime before dinner. Most people used that time to catch a quick nap, while Dana and I headed to the pool for a quick swim. Pretty refreshing and much needed after today’s competition! Next, we headed to dinner at some Indian restaurant. It sucked! From the very get-go, with sitting all of us at an incredibly tight table, to my food being forgotten and the mix of terrible service throughout the entire meal, I was steaming. All of these competitions, the traveling, the inability to ever get any alone time, missing my family and my best friend in my wife, and now, something as simple as a bad meal, I was ready to explode! Fortunately, after dropping a few cuss words and getting some ice cream, I quickly calmed down. We followed dinner with a nice walk around downtown Oslo and got to see most of it for the first time, so all is better…for now.

Photo: THIS IS MY FAVORITE PICTURE!! I have it framed in my apartment...we all look so genuinely happy :)

Great photo of six of the remaining contestants during our walk around Oslo!

I’m in the top 9!

Day 24 Over!!

Austin standing with the statue that almost

cost us a victory in yesterday's competition.

J-Rich doing his thing in front of

Oslo's City Hall!

This was a very cool building with

some really neat art.

J-Nation and I have become good buds

as the show has progressed!

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

Day 23 - May 15, 2012 (Episode 4)

Today, we ventured into Oslo for the first time. We also had a crazy first team competition!

Our first walk into the heart of Oslo! The larger building
to the right is The Grand Hotel. To the left and at the end
of the street is the Royal Palace!

We got started at 8:45 and caught a taxi to a train station on the outskirts of Oslo. Once there, we were filmed getting on the train and taking a ride into the heart of the capital city. They had us sit two by two and filmed us having various discussions, which were supposed to pertain to how excited we were to go into the city. However, as with most of our “reality” filming, I had a hard time staying on topic and noticed the cameras drifting to those that were a little more “focused”. Soon, we were there and split into two groups to film us walking from the train station down to the Royal Palace! Oslo is a very cool looking city. Not as big as I was expecting, with there being only a few buildings built hire than four stories, but a really busy, yet warm feeling city!

The Royal Palace! You can see the camera crews getting set up for our
introduction to the first team challenge.

We arrived at the Palace and it was there that they filmed Henriette introducing us to our first team challenge for Episode 4. It would be a scavenger hunt! Each team would get five clues and a map of

the city. Using our own knowledge and anything gained from talking with people in the street, the first team to find the five locations and return with pictures from all five places wins an advantage at tomorrow’s team competition. The only catch was that you would get 30 minutes added to your total time for every picture/clue your team got wrong. They split us into our teams. The Red Team would be Alf, Dana, Johnathan, Jessica and Amy. The Blue Team would be myself, Austin, Tara, C.J., and Barbara. Did a few shots of us pretending to start the competition, then broke for a long lunch. (Dirty Secret: During our fake starts, we ran up to a pile of goods, covered with our team-colored fleeces. We noticed that one of the things covered was the list of clues. They wanted us to film the fake-start again, so this time, we decided that everyone would memorize one of the five clues, so that we could work on getting it answered during our lunch. Using the short amount of time that they gave us during that filming session, we were each able to memorize our clue. Unfortunately though, there wasn’t anyone to help us figure out the answers to the clues over lunch, so it really was no help.)

The clues for our first competition.

We had a quick lunch and then the challenge was on! (Although, they staggered our groups starting times, so that we weren’t running into each other.) Our original strategy was going to be to run to the local tourist bus that was about 40 meters away. Unfortunately, the director overheard us strategizing and quickly shot down using professional tourist guides for help with answering our clues. With that, we just grabbed the first couple that was nearest us and walking up the street and started firing the clues at them. Fortunately, they knew every one of them along with where they were located and how to get there! Quickly, we devised a plan to go to the furthest location first (Vigeland Park and the Angry Baby Statue) and work our way back. We looked on the map and headed for the Tram, which was what was suggested to us by that couple. As we were heading to the Tram station, we decided to ask a guy walking near us if it was the fastest means of getting to Vigeland Park. He quickly said no and to follow him to the subway. The station isn’t as close to our desired location, but it’s only one stop to get there, whereas the tram would have several stops and has to weave through the city.

The Angry Baby Statue (Sinnataggen)

Off we went to the subway and one stop later, we were there! A half-mile walk later and we were standing face to angry-face with the Angry Baby statue! After taking a photo of Austin (who else, but the model) with the statue, we headed back to the subway to get over to our second clue. Three stops on the subway later, we were on the other side of Oslo and quickly taking a photo of Austin riding a huge Tiger Statue, right outside of the subway station. A four block walk later and we were snapping our third photo, which was a group shot on top of the Opera House! (By the way, there were two rules as we made our way through the city. One, we had to stay as a group, since there was only one camera with us, and two, we weren’t allowed to run. With that, Tara, Austin and I decided that we would speed-walk and push the pace until someone told us to stop. Then, after a little slowing down, we would start to push the pace again until again, told to stop, and repeat!) After the Opera House, we walked 8 blocks and found a statue of a King pointing down, which was our next clue. Finally, we made our way to the Grand Hotel, which was about five blocks away. The clue was to take a photo standing where the Noble Peace Prize winner would stand while waving to the Norwegian crowd. We quickly walked through a hotel room, passing pictures of all of these famous Peace Prize winners and ended up on a balcony looking over the city. We took one final picture of Austin and we were finished! We yelled “time” and handed the camera to the producer! No idea what our total time was, since they confiscated our watches, but it seemed as though you couldn’t possibly have done any better than we did. I guess we’ll find out!

The Blue Team, standing on top of the Opera House. One of my favorite
photos, purely because of the look of C.J.! Speed walking was not his thing!

Barbara, rocking my hat, while waiting a long wait
after finishing our challenge.

After finishing, they rushed us out of the balcony room and sequestered us to a different room on the other side of the hotel, so that we weren’t able to see when the other team finished. After another hour or two of waiting for the next scene to get set up, we finally met Henriette in a hotel room for the announcement of the results. We were very confident! After a brief intro, Henriette said that one of the teams took a photo of a wrong place and would get a 30 minute penalty! There was no way it could have been us. We not only had the confidence of the first couple and their answers, but then every down moment that we had while walking or riding the subway, we reconfirmed the answers with other locals. Then the announcement came. It was the Blue Team, our team, that had gotten one wrong! My stomach dropped! A 30 minute penalty guarantees our loss! Apparently, we didn’t’ read into one of the clues enough. We took a photo with the King pointing down, but the clue called for a picture of a statue of just his hand pointing down, which was another statue about six blocks from the one that we took a photo with. Dang it!

At this point, our team is completely devastated. We were so confident with this one and now it’s over. However, Henriette then announces that one team finished in one hour and forty-four minutes and the other in……….one hour and forty minutes! Even with our 30 minute penalty, we still almost beat them! Then, out of nowhere, “Congratulations Blue Team!!” What?! We won?! We were all so surprised, we didn’t even cheer. We just looked at each other with dropped jaws and amazement. Crazy! How could that even have happened?! (Turns out that the Red Team took the Tram, which added a ton to their time. An error that we almost made as well!)

Dinner at the most Norwegian of restaurants, TGI Fridays! Jessica's new
best friend, our waiter, was from San Diego and had a tattoo to prove it!

We did our typical interviews then headed to dinner off camera. Turns out our first dinner in the great city of Oslo would be none other than……..TGI Fridays! Really?! (Even worse for me, since I spent five years working for TGI Fridays in high school and college!) After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for more interviews and a surprise from Henriette that we would be staying in The Grand Hotel! Nice! In fact, they did some filming of us going into our rooms, along with me brushing my teeth in preparation for bed, ending with Austin and I getting into our separate beds (we were going to be roomies for this episode). That last part was especially weird, since they asked me to take off my shirt and lie in bed, pretending to prepare for sleep. Then, Austin would come in, get into his bed, exchange some quick banter then turn off the lights. Pretty strange, but funny stuff! I had to change clothes and take off my shirt in front of a camera guy, a sound guy, and two producers (both attractive females)! Too bad we eat too well and get a free beer with most meals! The diet hasn’t been great while arriving here and the body reflects that!

A look at The Grand Hotel!

After filming, all of us were pretty worn out. We all decided to go to bed (I think it was all of us). Austin and I had some good pillow talk about the lack of competitiveness in some of the other contestants. It’s such a weird thing. All my life, I’ve been involved in sports and surrounded by others with competitive strong competitive drives. It’s completely foreign to me to be involved in a competition like this and to have people here that aren’t too worried about the competitions and are just here to have fun. If tomorrow is the Russ (a competition that they’ve done the first two seasons, where you basically drive around town in a bus, drinking and competing different tasks all day!), as we expect it to be, I think we’re going to have no problem, seeing that the more competitive people are on our team!

Day 23 Over!