I thought it was good that they admitted it was their own mistakes that lead to their situation, and didn't blame any other teams.
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I thought it was good that they admitted it was their own mistakes that lead to their situation, and didn't blame any other teams.
I usually am "meh" about the program, but I am cheering against the twins.
Jeezuz H. Cristo.
What an annoying waste of space those two are.
Because they are twins, I can't figure which I dislike more.
I am glad for the winners! They were always nice to the other racers ... and I would have been just as happy if the second-place finishers won.
The curse of the car seems to have struck again. I got home from church choir concert at 8:40, so I saw just the very end when they were putting together the greetings. When I saw which team won (I won't say it in case anyone has not seen it), I realized that I was rooting mostly for the team that ultimately came in second. But of the four remaining teams, the first and second place were the ones I most wanted to win.Quote:
Originally Posted by Karen
I am glad for the winners as well...ALLIANCE BE DARNED! ;)
I had to search for Bora Bora on the Internet -- I'm not very familiar with Polynesia! I thought the sand castle challenge was going to be a lot easier than it was. I'm rooting for the docs from Chicago, of course, but I'm not sure who else I'm rooting for yet. It was cloudy and chilly in Chicago today, so I enjoyed seeing all of those beach shots.
So was anyone else as amazed at the stupidity of this week's eliminated team? They could easily have used their advantage at any point, but did not, for any reason other than pride I guess!
I was baffled by their decision to try the other task instead of using the pass. I also wonder what is going to happen to the team with the injured racer- don't the teams have to take turns doing the challenges that don't require both partners?
They do, but I am guessing they figure they will just complete as long as they can, knowing they will never make it to the end.
Wow, interesting elimination last night. Karen called it!
There are Vietnamese restaurants in Chicago and I've read that Vietnamese food is different from Chinese or Japanese. I'm curious about the soup they made with rice noodles, bean sprouts, peppers and herbs. The Vietnam War was going on when I was little but I don't remember it well.
The soup is called pho.Quote:
Originally Posted by cassiesmom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho
Good stuff, especially when you get it just made.
I know Vietnam was a French colony for a while, so their food is not only based on their own local ingredients, but also influenced by the French colonials, too. We have Vietnamese restaurants around here, I have not tried one yet, but may someday!Quote:
Originally Posted by cassiesmom
Interesting outcome tonight. I thought the comment made by one of the teams about an "off" odor in their vehicle was so not appropriate! Hello, there's a camera on you - and you're the guest in Botswana - so perhaps you should watch what you say.
I don't remember exactly how the song used in last week's segment in Vietnam was described. I thought Phil Keoghan referred to it simply as a "national song" but I could be wrong. Were the racers even told what the lyrics meant, or did they just have to get the lyrics right in Vietnamese? It struck me as odd that they would use a memorial featuring a downed B-52 as a clue site. But the Vietnam conflict ended in 1975 and I think most of the racers were born after that. So they can't even relate to it as something that happened during their lifetime. I don't think CBS was being insensitive, but I can see how older people (who remember more of the Vietnam conflict and are more likely to have been personally affected by it) might.
So now that the father and son team are out, I am not sure who to root for! Guess I'm rooting for Alabama, the hockey brothers and the roller derby moms. I want Mark and Bopper back!
I am sure it was one of the national propaganda songs for the socialist party, and the Vietnamese were thrilled to get it aired on American television, though I do not see any mass political conversions happening because of it.
I also thought that racer's comments about the odor were overplayed, I "get" we're not supposed to like her. And while I was disappointed there were no actual guinea fowl involved, I was surprised not many teams chose the "fowl" related task first, making fire by hand is notoriously tricky, as anyone who has ever been a scout, or watched any "reality tv" at all should know!
Well, now after we posted about this, CBS has apologized for the Amazing Race Hanoi episode, and are taking it seriously:
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03...tnam-war-vets/
Surprising elimination this week. Didn't see it coming. I'm glad none of the teams tipped over their canoes with the baby goats (or even without!). I thought the second team to get a speeding ticket showed some "ugly American" behavior in how they handled that process.
I am always glad when an eliminated team handles it graciously, which they did. And I was particularly happy about the teams that actually showed some appreciation for the amazing surroundings they were in in Botswana!
Oh my goodness, I wanted to leap through the TV, into the snow, and pet, hug and play with all those Swiss rescue dogs! :D
I sort of had a feeling how tonight's elimination was going to go. The one team member was really struggling.
I, of course, adored seeing the Saint Bernards! And had too laugh when the one didn't want to get on the train; she employed the patented Saint Bernard technique of
1. Put on the brakes then
2. Turn to jello.
A smaller dog you can pick up, but Saints seem to know that if they just go limp, you can push on one part of the dog, and the rest stays put!
I'm embarrassed that some of the racers did not know who said, "Ich bin ein Berliner" !! Yikes!
I really don't want to see any of the remaining teams eliminated. I expected that this week's outcome would be a lot like last week -- didn't happen.
I think it really depends on the age of the contestants and how good their school history classes were! I was not surprised it was a non-elimination leg, we seemed due for another!
Oh my goodness, I thought of Carole tonight because the teams were in Scotland :D What a beautiful castle! One of the challenges involved preparing haggis -- none for me, thank you.
When I was little, at the church where I grew up, there was a lady who would make Scottish shortbread from scratch for very special occasions. For example Christmas, the associate pastor's ordination luncheon, the church's 60th anniversary. It was always a very special treat, buttery and rich.
Were the last two teams that close behind the first three, that the U-Turn was necessary? I thought they could have just kept going and not used the U-Turn, since they were already ahead and the last two teams knew that. My dad and I thought the brothers were going to get penalized for carrying the whisky barrels instead of rolling them - but maybe they were only carried a short distance.
I'd like to visit Scotland and see that gorgeous castle! Wow! (But I'd also like to go to Germany and see the Brandenburg Gate and the Kurfurstendamm... to Switzerland and see the Alps... and of course Bora Bora!)
I was kind of hoping tonight would be a non-elimination. Didn't happen that way, though especially since there was one just last week.
The teams went from Northern Ireland to London Heathrow Airport via Liverpool ... but we didn't get to see them in Liverpool at all -- boo!
I felt bad for the roller derby moms when they kept missing the first course over and over again.
I suspect they were in Liverpool only in the dark, and not in the prettier parts of the very industrial port city! I thought the eliminated team last night handled it gracefully, and was happy the winning team indeed were the ones who won!
At first I felt sorry for the roller derby moms, but then the hockey brother practically told them what they were doing wrong, and they still didn't "get" it!
Season 23 is here ... any early thoughts? They've done those "follow your partner and meet up with them" road blocks before. I felt bad for the team that didn't read the clue and got to Phil via the wrong means of transportation. I think the first week should be non-elimination.
The team that got eliminated seemed kind of doomed before the start, and then misread the clue, which was their own fault, sadly! And I doubt the docs will ever make that mistake again!
I felt bad for today's eliminated team. They changed buses, which worked against them; and then they misunderstood the road block. Had they gotten the shoe shine task correct I think they might not have been eliminated.
I'm rooting for ... the oil field guys, the dating couple from Massachusetts, and the baseball wives - who remind me of last season's roller derby moms.
I wonder why the teams were told to make such a long bus trip. Why not just have them go by air?
That is always part of the race - using different methods of transportation, and doing so correctly! I am sure if the eliminated team had not wasted time badgering the poor old shoeshine guy, and reread the clue, they probably would not have been eliminated!Quote:
Originally Posted by cassiesmom
I am bummed about tonight's elimination. That was one of the teams I was rooting for. They got caught by flight delays.
I was wondering about the teams speaking Spanish to their taxi drivers, though. Were they assuming that their Portuguese taxi drivers also spoke Spanish, or did they establish that they had Spanish as a mutual language with their driver? I would love to go to Lisbon and see the place where the check-in was ... it looked interesting and beautiful.
There is enough similarity between Spanish and Portuguese than one can make ones self understood in the other language if you speak one well. I am told it is just the verb endings that are different, in general - my grandfather spoke Swedish(his family), French Canadian (his wife's family), English, Polish, and Portuguese, but if necessary, could "get along" in Spanish ... He was the chief of police in a New England mill town, so learned the languages of the immigrants who came to work the mills.
I felt bad for the eliminated team, they seemed like good guys. I predict that the team with the extra express pass keeps it as long as possible, in trying to leverage it without regard for anyone else's feelings about anything! If there's no penalty for not giving it away, I wonder if they just end up not giving it to anyone!
Wow, I would like to visit Norway!
Edited to say - I would like to visit Norway, and Scandinavia in general. When I went with the team from church to St. Petersburg in Russia, we were there in July. It never got truly dark at night. 11 PM was more like dusk. I'd like to go there again, too.
Scandinavia is on my list of places to visit some day, as that's not only beautiful, but where some of my great-grandparents are from! Sweden, not Norway, but not as far North as they were!
Please correct me if I'm wrong - but I think the teams that have been eliminated the last two weeks have previously finished first? I hope the same fate befalls the team that finished first tonight!
It's the wrong time of year for paczki! Now I am craving one! I'll have to go to the doughnut shop and buy one with cream or jelly filling. Fat Tuesday is still five months away. I loved how happy the lady was who had the rose filled ones in her flat - she was so cute when they got it right!
This was probably filmed near midsummer, given that the sun never set when they were in Norway - they must have gotten someone to make the paczki out of season!Quote:
Originally Posted by cassiesmom
Another team that I was rooting for was the last team to arrive at the pit stop. I was hoping this would be a non-elimination week. The team I'm NOT rooting for did pretty well, unfortunately.
I wanted to jump right through the TV and take a turn at trying to sing Schubert with the Vienna Boys' Choir! Some day I hope to visit Schloß Schönbrunn! Wow! (Actually ... one of my "Bucket List" trips is one my parents took about 20 years ago - a guided tour visiting Prague and Vienna.)
I felt truly bad for the non-musicians in this one - one of the rare challenges that I would have done well at! I don't know the German language but have sung in German, so I would have had fun! I thought the doc had the best singing voice, even if he didn't sound great in the lower octave! And thought it was okay that they didn't try to make the tone deaf people sing the note correctly - when the pronounced the words okay, got the timing right, and went vaguely up or down as the notes did, they got through, so it was more fair that way!Quote:
Originally Posted by cassiesmom
I don't know much about mosques, but the one the teams visited in Abu Dhabi looked really interesting. (No pews, though - do people sit down when they go to a mosque? Do they sit on the floor?) I noticed that the teams were a little more plainly dressed, no tank shirts on the men and no very short sleeves for the women. The cousins only got there 10 minutes ahead of the other teams but that was a good head start for them.
I'd be okay with any of the teams winning except the woman with the pink hair. Yikes!
I was a little annoyed that the baseball wives thought they should keep the location some of the dates secret, to the point that they were annoyed when the Afghanimals found it and were loud about it ... and so was okay with the fact that they still finished where they did!
I do like the team that came in first this week for the fact that they are going through the race with pretty much unabashed glee. Even when they bicker, it is over pretty quickly!
All the footage I have seen, people bring their own personal prayer rug and kneel in mosques. But we need Popcornbird to weigh in on this! What a gorgeous building, the stonework and ornamentation was just breathtaking!
I thought it was very nice of one of the racers to help another who was struggling. The team that got eliminated was off to a strong start, but they were tripped up by the task.
Yes, I was happy they helped a little bit, and it didn't cost any position in the race or anything.