Amazing Race
I've had a few thoughts for posts and never actually wrote them down. I'm sitting here watching yesterday's dvr'ed "Amazing Race", and figured I might as well start with that.My friends Penny, JoAnne and Allison have watched the show since the beginning and they finally got me to give it a try a few seasons ago. I loved it because it's live-action World of Warcraft questing ;) I know I'd never be able to compete on the show, but it's fun to see the various parts of the globe and all the activities highlighted.
It's also nice when the people on the show aren't cutting each other down, but working together in their team. I also appreciate those that honor their word when they make a deal with other teams. Last season, two teams were stuck together due to a bad choice of airplane flights. They said they would do the challenges* together when they got to Russia. One team was finished with their synchronized swimming challenge early, but they kept their word and waited hours for the other team while cheering them on.
Anyway, last night's episode had teams racing in French Polynesia. The last challenge before the final sprint to the check-in mat had one teammate walking on low stilts, kicking a coconut across a small stretch of sand. The other teammate cheered from the sidelines. There were some native people dancing on the sidelines as well, and some of the teammates tried to learn the dances.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the dance might be important in the finale. The final 3 teams are always quizzed on the countries they visited over the course of the entire race. Last time around, they had to have paid attention to how the native person greeted them at the check-in mat--the contestants had to do a matching game of "hello", "goodbye", and the flags of the visited countries. When the teams were doing the stilt challenge, the cameras focused on the dancers a few times, so we'll see if that's important or not. If the next leg of the race also has dancers, I'll feel more confident.
