Episode 4 - My thoughts

Maybe it's because I watched the episode twice last night, but it seems as if I've got a lot to say today!

While Still in Sweden...

Jonathan. Let's talk. You're in a race around the world. Where you, you know, run and stuff. Why would you pack a hat like that? I'm guessing this is the site where you bought it. Stars and fatigues are so out.

Hayden and Aaron, Kris & Jon, Gus & Hera and Jonathan & Victoria. At least you have learned your lessons about always checking the operation times for yourself. After watching this show for six seasons now as a die hard fan, last night was the first time it occurred to me that, maybe, the race producers set their own operation times for things so that they aren't always filming at major tourist spots while major tourists are around, you know? The local (I watched closley, and I think that the two sets of teams talked to the same person, but maybe not) may indeed have been correct about telling you the tower opened at 10.00 AM, but the "hours of operations" sign clearly was placed there by the race peeps--it was in English, after all!

Off to Senegal...
This is the time when I get to tell a little story. When I was a freshman at Concordia I went on this literature seminar to Ireland & Wales & France & England, and one of the other people on the trip was this total midwestern Norwegian Lutheran named Pauline Nygaard--except she grew up in Dakar because her parents are missionaries. I kind of stumbled into this storytelling gathering in this pub in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, and ended up telling stories with these "real" Welsh storytellers. When we left, Pauline turned to me and said, "That was just like watching Jesus in the temple with all the elders!" That was the first (and I'm sure last) time I will ever be compared to Jesus. And it came from a kid who had grown up a missionary. And that's my Senegal connection.

This was the fourth episode in, and the first real airport scramble (they all ended up on the same flight from Paris, but whatever). Jonathan is not allowed to say things like "we're going to strike fear in the other teams" while wearing the aforementioned hat ever, ever again. And he's also not allowed to say "we need to get to Dakar, Africa". Totally chanelling the Twinkies.

Bolo rules because he says things like "we gotta find someone to sell us a ticket". Yep. That's what you usually do in an airport.

And upon arrival in Senegal, we got an actual clue! Like the good ol' days. And I think this is quite possibly the first literary one we've had. Yea, Senghor!

I loved this next sequence of all the teams trying to a) figure out who wrote the poem and b) where he's buried and c) trying to get there. I'll share my highlights:

Jonthan and Victoria. According to her bio, Victoria speaks four languages, one of which is French. I don't know why Jonathan insisted on finding an English-speaking local, but the Jonathan: "Fast, fast" Victoria: "Vite, Vite" Jonathan" Beep, Beep!" dialogue was priceless.

Don & Mary Jean. Getting a flat tire sucks. Just ask the pizza brothers. But seeing you guys lift the car was awesome. As well as "Finger of fate has diddled us". I'm not sure what "diddle" means, but according to dictionary.com it means "to cheat, swindle". I guess that would make sense.

Bolo--if the person you're talking to doesn't understand English very well, it's not going to help by saying "He died in the cemetary". Personally, I think he's just dead in the cemetary. Same for you, Jon. The last time I checked, it wasn't the "cemetary where the author resides".

Lots of teams complained about Senegal when they first got there. That's not really a surprise, as they're coming from Scandanavia, so I'll let it go. But I did find Adam's "this is the most [insert derogatory adjective here, I don't remember what he said] place I've ever been" very funny, seeing as how, according to his bio, a long trip is going from San Fernando Valley to Santa Monica.

Kris, we like you. You think that Senegal is enlightening. And you meant it! Not like Colin!

And onto the detour...
It's time for my second story of the recap. I totally felt for Don and Hera getting sick on those boats. When I was living in Ireland I was headed out to Inish Oirr for the weekend, and it was a really small boat. And the water was really rough--in fact, the captain apologized to us afterwards because if he had known it was going to be that rough, we wouldn't have sailed. And an 88 year old woman who had lived on that island her whole life told me she'd never seen the water that bad. And this is from the same island group that "Riders to the Sea" is about. What should have been a 45 minute jaunt turned into an hour and a half of pure hell where I and three Germans stood on the back of the ship, hanging on to this metal pole above our head with the circumference of a Folger's Coffee Can, and puking straight down because, we were warned, had we gone any closer to the edge of the boat we would have been tossed over.

So Don, Hera, I understand.

Mary Jean, you can tell that you and Don have been married for forty years when you get to the detour that says "catch fish" or "stack fish", and you say "I'm feeling like the fish", and he knows what you mean. But, Mary Jean? Andele isn't French. Or Wolof. And I'm not sure you can tell a fishing boat in rough water to andele anyways.

And we move on to the roadblock...

Freddy, culprit of African Transport Gate not #1, not #2, but #3. Yes, it's very uncomfortable to see Freddy and Kendra acting this way to their cab driver, as the viewing public goes, "dude, didn't they see what happened to Colin last time?" But that's the thing--they didn't. This race started being run on August 13th, and the Colin / taxigate episode didn't air until August 24th. Which means they really didn't see it, and had no idea they were doing the exact same thing. So, ergo, I give them a little bit of wiggle-room.

Kris totally kick ass on this roadblock, but you know why it was? She was the only one who was smart enough to carry the bucket under the water, where it would be lighter. I don't know why anyone else didn't do that. And Jon was just so cute admiring Kris doing the task. I hope those two do well (of course, my pool picks consist now only of Kris and Jon and Gus and Hera. One of these teams is not like the other...).

One more thought. This is the earliest a non-elimination leg has ever been.

• Season 1: Episode 6
• Season 2: Episode 6
• Season 3: Episode 8
• Season 4: Episode 8
• Season 5: Episode 5

I'm not sure how I feel about this trend of more and more non-elim legs and the non-elims coming earlier and earlier, but I was glad to see Don and Mary Jean stick around!

That's it for today, folks. I will post pool scores tomorrow!