On Sunday's edition of "The Amazing Race," a bathroom break nearly cost the Ethopian siblings precious time. The teams had to for no apparent reason keep a chicken with them because "no chicken, no check-in." The Blondes named their chicken Phil, and in a move that will endear the editors to me forever, they showed a clip of Phil looking not unlike the chicken in question. The teams had to do a Detour where they did a native dance or panned for gold. The Blondes looked like they were using moves they'd picked up from "Showgirls," while Kynt actually seemed cool. The Race has apparently supplemented/replaced the Yields (where a team would have to sit around for 30 minutes and steam over the fact they'd been Yielded) with U-turns (where after performing one half of the Detour a team has to go back and perform the other half.) The Blondes use it on Lorena and Jason, who started off a million miles back of the pack anyhow. The Roadblock was about loading up a bike with a bunch of stuff, including a bound goat, and navigating a marketplace.  Vyxsyn was saddened by all the poverty she saw in Africa. The Ethopians just barely get to the mat first, and Jennifer (Nathan's partner, rather than one of the Blondes) is angry because the Ethopians have already been in first a bunch and they won't play nice. I'm not making that up. We get about a gajillion shots of Jason trying to sound optimistic that they can catch up to the rest of the pack. But it's pretty certain that the help they got from Julia to not come in last the previous week only delayed the inevitable.  

Here's what they had to say for themselves:

R: Guys, how are you doing?

L: Good. How are you?

R: Good. Sorry you guys got eliminated last night, but it seemed like it was pretty much inevitable from the start. How did you feel about that?

L: Yeah, we felt the same way.

J: Yeah, we were pretty bummed that we weren’t moving on to another country because we would have been at the airport and we would have equalized this. And of course the U-turn didn’t help. And it didn’t help that nobody really messed up anything. So it just didn't fall right for us.

R: So how far back did you guys start?

L: About an hour and a half behind the last team, which were the Blondes.

R: So do you think if you hadn’t been U-turned you possibly could have caught up to them?

J: I think we would have been close.

L: No, I don’t think we would have. We would have still been about a half an hour behind.

J: But the thing is, you just never know, like the course of action that takes place. Since they did U-turn us, they may probably felt a little better about it and so they were more relaxed in getting to the events. If they didn’t U-turn us, if they would have seen us, it puts more pressure on them. You just never know what’s going to happen. I think we could have—it definitely would have been close.

L: Yeah.

R: So it seems to me that they U-turned you thinking they were u turning the other team that was right behind them. Is that what your impression was, or did they mean to U-turn you?

J: They meant to U-turn us…..

L: They meant to U-turn us, not TK and Rachel. I don't think they would have U-turned TK and Rachel had they known they were the ones coming up behind them.

J: They must have just thought that was us. They were scared that we were catching up with them.

R: So how did you feel about being U-turned? I mean, you seemed to take it pretty much in stride once you got there.

J: (laughs) There’s nothing else we could do. We were just like, "Alright, here we go."

L: Yeah, it was more like we’re behind, we don’t know if we can catch up. We can only be positive, so.

J: We saw it as, we were the first team ever on "The Amazing Race" to be U-turned, so we will go down in the history books.

R: Why did you guys try out for "The Amazing Race" in the first place?

J: I guess adventure, man. Adventure, maybe some money, and fun. That was it.

R: So how did it compare with your expectations of what would happen?

L: I didn’t know you’re constantly racing. I thought that when you rest, you got a rest, you rested. But it just so happens that you’re racing the whole entire time. So I didn’t know—the adrenaline rush I’d never felt before, just a lot of emotions I’d never felt before. It was completely different than what I’d thought. I thought it wouldn’t be THAT intense.

J: I agree.

R: So Lorena, obviously you have had your moment that was really challenging from last week when you were trying to milk the camel. How do you feel in retrospect, that sort of being out there where you had that sort of breakdown. What was it like to go through it?

L: To be honest with you, I don’t remember going through it. I was so in another space. I was so scared and nervous to let Jason down, to lose this leg. I just put so much pressure on myself that I don’t remember going through it. But watching back, I can see—I don’t know, it’s just hard. It's hard to talk about it. I don’t know if I can ever feel like this again unless I was put in that same situation. And I’ve never acted like that before either—I don’t know how to explain it. I feel bad that I’m being judged for it—not judged, that people are talking about it in a negative way and stuff like that and putting it down when really I see it like it a human being. Because I wasn’t overreacting at all. A human being that’s going through something really hard. And that’s it.

R: How have people you’ve known reacted to that moment specifically and your being on the race in general? ...

L: Well, the people I know—they love me, and they actually felt bad for me for what had happened, very supportive and a lot of love from the people that matter. They’re really, really proud that we went through it and that we’re still together. And they know that it’s hard. And it was fun for them to not know what was going to happen. And it was sad for them—they went through all the emotions that we went through. That’s pretty cool.

R: It seemed like Marianna and Julia let you in on a secret that allowed you to pass them. Did that make you feel guilty doing that, and did it make you feel lucky that she gave you that hint?

J: At that point we were so far behind, both of us, that I think we would have done the same thing, ‘cause it was definitely a "Let’s just get the hell out of here and get to the next spot." I don’t think they were really thinking that we would catch up. But we did, and that’s the race.

L: It's also we were very far away with our camels. And we were helping each other back and forth. I helped her, and she helped me. And at that moment, we became like teammates. We were so desperate. And even Julia was having a hard time, and she was freaking out. Not to my extent, but she was freaking out too at that point. That we became just like a team and helped us cope with how we were feeling. That last hint came with a bunch of other hints that we both gave each other. So I don’t think they felt bad for doing it, and we felt guilty for doing that. I just felt glad to be out of that situation. I didn’t have room for any other feelings.

R: How does camel milk taste anyway?

L: I could say it was good because in my mind it was great. It tasted sweet, and it wasn’t as thick as cow milk. Thinner. Actually, not bad. I didn’t think it was bad, and I don’t like cow milk.

R: What was your favorite part of being on the Race?

L: There are so many. For me, it was my birthday, the first pit stop of the race. And we got to sleep in tents on this beautiful island of Inishmore in Ireland. I got to celebrate it with Jason and with a beautiful view  and with our first meal in a long time. It was great. That was my best moment.

R: Which, if any, of the teams are you rooting for to win the Race?

L: All of them.

J: We know the outcome, so it's so biased. I just feel that everybody's strong and everybody's going to be surprised as to what happens because we were all surprised when we found out as each person was eliminated. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a fun Race.

R: So what would you advise people who want to try out for the Race to do as preparation?

L: Practice. It's not so much physical as your mental state. Put yourself in situations where you haven't been before and try to tackle them as calmly as possible. Situations that you don't know what's going to to happen. Like go bungee jumping. Go outside of yourself. I think that's the best preparation because then you know you can do anything.

J: It's about keeping your head while other people around you are losing theirs. I think in life, whatever you've got to do to keep your head is definitely a strategy.

R: Remind me how you guys met and then tell me about how being on the Race has affected your relationship, if it has.

L: I first saw him at a bar that I was working at. I guess that's the first time we met met. But we really got to know each other in an acting class. We became really, really, really good friends and I think the friendship really took us to the next level. We got along really well. It was three months into our friendship that we started dating, and we've been together three and a half years now. We go through our ups and downs and we're just trying to figure out ourselves individually and together. We love each other and we really want to make it work. It's like any other relationship. I think the Race forced us to feel things that we hadn't felt before.

R: Like what?

L: Like the elimination, being a team, working together, me going through my own personal emotional roller coaster and him seeing that and dealing with it and then dealing with the fact of why we got eliminated.

R: Does it bother you or affect you that Jason basically said marriage isn't for him on national TV?

L: No, because we talked about it and I know what he meant by it. When you don't know someone and hear that, it sounds worse than it is. I know what he was trying to say. We live together and we have a very good relationship. ... And he feels that marriage would just be a sealing point that he doesn't need for us to be good together.

J: We live life differently anyway. We don't have normal 9-5 jobs. We're both actors. I'm working on a documentary right now. I'm not a sheep. I'm different. I have an edge to myself that things aren't so secure all the time, and I like that edge. I want to keep it, I think. I think marriage as an institution on the whole, it is what it is. If you want a big ol' family and you want to do it that way, marriage is probably a good thing. But as of right now, I don't want a family right now. I think that's the main reason to get married.

R: OK, anything else you want to add about your time on "The Amazing Race"?

J: I had diarrhea ... after the fourth leg. So thank God we were eliminated. (laughs).

L: Yeah, I don't.

J: You did, too.

L: I did.

R: Well, thanks for sharing and best of luck.

- posted by Raoul