Amazing Race

[Karen]

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!

[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.

[Karen]

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!

[cassiesmom]

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.

[Karen]

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!

[cassiesmom]

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!

[Karen]

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!