Amazing Race 17 - episode 4...

An Amazing Race episode in the Arctic in Sweden - awesome!

In addition to loving the cold temperature, some of my favorite music comes from Sweden. Many of the songs you see on the right side of my blog under "Favorite New Music" is stuff I originally found out about thanks to the Swedish music charts.

Anyways, back to the Amazing Race episode.

So Nick wanted to take a cab from Ghana to the Arctic Circle. Looks like he's as terrible at world geography as me! Actually, worse, because even I know you don't take a cab from a place with such extreme heat to the Arctic.

So we've now seen the first Speed Bump of the season. It was the extreme challenge of sitting in an ice chair for 10 minutes. What kind of speed bump / punishment is that?! That's like a short break. And it's right at the start of the leg, which will give them plenty of time to catch up if they were behind (which last night they weren't anyways).

Remember the Amazing Race player a couple seasons ago that refused to do the "challenge" where you just had to go down a waterslide? Because of that, her and her partner were eliminated from the race. Something kind of similar happened last night.

Stephanie was too scared to go sledding down a hill and after just one failed try, refused to go again. I never understand the fear of simple things like sledding, watersliding, or even ziplines (things that so many people consider fun and easy). It seems more like they just don't want to do it, so they psych themselves out of it. That kind of drama is insane to me. Especially when you know you're going to be doing things like that on the Amazing Race. Luckily for her partner, they didn't get eliminated because of that.

And then there was the Express Pass. A new feature of the race which is now finished. It seems like Jill and Thomas wasted it since three teams arrived at that task after them. But in the midst of the race, not knowing where everyone else is would be nerve-wracking. So I understand them being cautious and using it.

Next week's episode is in the neighboring country of Norway, the homeland of a-ha! So it's another country with incredible music - not they we hear any of it, but I know it's there. Plus it seems like a really cool place. I'd love to visit both Sweden and Norway someday - but I'll settle with seeing them via the Amazing Race for now.