Amazing Race Tidbits
CBS' THE AMAZING RACE 14th Edition.
Teams were given a clue and told to keep racing by Phil. Cara and Jaime were very disheartened to hear that. Margie and Luke planned to keep working with Cara and Jaime and Tammy and Victor. Margie, while excited to still be in the Race, is tired of hearing her son yelling �Mom�. So might a lot of fans! Kisha and Jen were beyond relieved to hear they were still in the Race. Phil encouraged them to not give up.
Teams had to find Bai Hai Dong Men, a shopping mall or district or street with a series of shops. Teams were instructed to find a Travelocity Roaming Gnome. They had to bring the gnome to the Pit Stop, while their next clue was on the bottom. Some found it in the vegetable shop.
Teams were to cross a moat as they traveled to Gu Gong Xi Bei Jiao and find a common means of transportation in urban China, the electric bicycle. Once they found the bikes, they got to take in the morning scene in Beijing. In the hustle and bustle, a person is shown apparently doing Tai Chi. After Tammy and Victor get their bikes, it takes them a while to figure them out, but then they come out onto Tiananmen Square just in time for the military changing of the guard and the flag raising ceremony. Tammy and Victor were impressed.
Beijing Opera From the website: Teams had to travel to the Hu Guang Hui Guan Opera House where they would make each other up as a princess and gentleman at the Chinese opera. After being fully made up and costumed, they had to present themselves to the opera master to receive their next clue.
This small opera house was not to be confused with the large National Opera House. Jaime and Cara kept singing to their cab driver, so he took them to the gleaming National Opera building instead.
Chinese Waiter From the website: Teams had to travel to Hu Guang Hui Guan restaurant and select a table of hungry patrons. The customers would give their orders in Mandarin and teams would have to recite the orders back to the chef. When they recited the orders correctly, the kitchen staff would prepare the dishes. When all of the dishes had been served, teams would receive their next clue.
Careful note taking and even more careful enunciation was required to get the OK from the chef on just placing the orders. The two teams eventually doing this one had no trouble serving the dishes.
Episode Eleven Detour |
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|---|---|---|
Members |
Option |
Notes |
| Cara and Jaime | Beijing Opera | They lost a lot of time as their driver went to the National Opera House. They did well enough with the makeup and costumes. |
| Kisha and Jen | Beijing Opera | They did particularly well with the makeup. |
| Margie and Luke | Beijing Opera | Luke did particularly badly with the makeup, putting way too much powder on his mother�s face. Maybe they came near the limit of signing�it might have been hard to impart information of a more visual nature, like thickness. |
| Tammy and Victor | Chinese Waiter | They had to get the orders and do the reading of the orders over as they mispronounced the pork dish�s name. Tammy took the lead for the second recitation of the orders. |
The first big storyline of this episode was finding the U-Turn station. Tammy and Victor were told by a guard just outside the restaurant that the clue meant within the complex housing the restaurant and the opera house. Of course, they easily found the U-Turn station inside of the opera house. All three of the other teams were clueless and got next to no help from the street. Cara and Jaime did find one businessman who knew, but was too busy to help. The only thing that worked was simply to go back to where they started. Margie and Luke went back first, then Kisha and Jen. Jaime and Cara took the longest, even though Kisha and Jen told them they were going back to the opera house. They might have been out wandering the streets for three hours or more.
Having arrived first, Tammy and Victor U-Turned Kisha and Jen, saying they were sorry, but they could not outrun the sisters�as they experienced at the Pit Stop in Guilin. Kisha and Jen then had to do the Chinese Waiter side of the Detour. Unfortunately, it took something like four or five tries to get the menu reading of the orders to the chef correct. That gave Jaime and Cara critical time to at long last get to the U-Turn station.
Once done with the Detour, teams learned they had to find the Dong Hua Men Yi Shi Street Market.
Teaser: Who has a taste for adventure?
From the website: One team member had to eat a plate of fried Chinese delicacies including grasshoppers, larvae, scorpions, and starfish. Once they finished their plate, teams would receive their next clue.
No Ketchup! This eating activity could be a challenge for anyone not able to eat fried foods. The beetle larvae and the starfish were the hardest to eat.
Episode Eleven Roadblock |
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|---|---|---|
Members |
Teammate |
Notes |
| Cara and Jaime | Cara | Cara was like an eating machine! She made up critical time on Jen as she wolfed down the food. |
| Kisha and Jen | Jen | Relieved to find it was fried food. Jen was much too slow, taking tiny bites and using 4 water bottles to wash down the exotic food. She did not speed up when the former cheerleaders arrived. |
| Margie and Luke | Margie | Steady effort, OK |
| Tammy and Victor | Victor | Steady effort in a specific order. Victor gave a running commentary on the foods, the key being that the beetle larvae were slimy and hard to keep down. |
Beijing National Stadium, called in Chinese Niao Chao or commonly in English as the Bird's Nest, featured in the breathtaking opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Episode Eleven Order of Finish |
|
|---|---|
Members |
Place |
| Cara and Jaime | 3 |
| Kisha and Jen | 4 |
| Margie and Luke | 2 |
| Tammy and Victor | 1 |
The first two teams arrived in the order they finished the Roadblock, well ahead of the last two teams. Jen had to stop at the portable restrooms near the stadium. It took awhile, as the concern grew on Kisha�s face. Jaime and Cara edged them by just seconds, but Kisha graciously did not blame her younger sister for the elimination, saying they would never have made it so far without the contributions made by Jen.
Outlook for the Finale, Episode Twelve
Congratulations to Tammy and Victor, Margie and Luke, and Jaime and Cara for making it to the final episode.
It should be fun in the sun as the final three go to Maui, I really like these three teams, that have been alliance partners. The partnership could well be the biggest challenge going into the final competition. Victor and Tammy have been nice, even gracious, throughout. Margie and Luke, perhaps the big story with Luke being the first deaf person on the Amazing Race. Also, it marks the first time for a mother and son to make the final three. Luke is so strong, and Margie has been the bionic woman, according to Phil. And then the surprise of Jaime and Cara coming from near the back of the pack to be in contention. If they can avoid a huge blunder like the one they barely survived in Beijing, they could do very well indeed! The previews say that their bad experiences with taxi drivers will affect them�not uncommon for teams that have struggled, but make it to the finale. The text version, though, places them right in the thick of it near the end. Does something critical happen to Margie and Luke? On any given Sunday�
Watch the three remaining teams compete for the million dollars in Episode 12 on Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 8:00 PM.
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