Author Topic: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12  (Read 31844 times)

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Offline puddin

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2007, 04:28:25 PM »
Mactors

Offline michael

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #26 on: November 28, 2007, 04:29:48 PM »
Whatever, I embrace mactors  :jumpy:

as long as they are entertaining, like Lorena and Jason were


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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #27 on: December 04, 2007, 11:10:59 AM »
Puddin, GeorgiaPeach : Do you have any insight into the missing FF (see bolded text) ?  Thanks.  It's funny that they still don't have their U-turn story down straight.

From Reality Dish

Quote
Josh Clinton: Hey girls.

Shana Wall: Hello.

Jennifer McCall: Hi.

JC: How are you doing?

SW: We're a little sad today, but otherwise good.

JC: Alright, cool. So I wanted to start first by asking how you became friends?

SW: Jen and I met through a mutual friend a few years ago. She is also married to one of my oldest friends that I have known since the first grade.

JC: Awesome. Were you both fans of The Amazing Race before you got on the show?

JM: Absolutely. I had seen almost every episode and The Amazing Race is by far my favorite reality show.

SW: I'm a huge fan of The Amazing Race and am thrilled to have been able to participate in the show. I'm a big fan.

JC: Cool. I'm interested to know what the longest you two have been together before you did the race? Did you do any traveling together before this?

SW: We did not do a lot of traveling together, we did a lot of traveling separately. So this was probably a lot more new to us than the rest of the teams.

JC: So have you spent a lot of time together elsewhere?

SW: We definitely spend a lot of time together, but we never traveled together before.

JC: Okay. Going into the race, were either of you worried that fighting during the race might cost you?

JM: Not at all. When Shana and I went into the race, we understood what each other wanted, we agreed on our strategy, we both help each other out in bad situations, we lift each other spirits, and we both depend on each other when we were at our lows. And that is what we did.

JC: Yeah. Did you plan to use your sex appeal as strategy in the game?

SW: When we said that we were going to "flirt our way through the competition" or said we cared about what we looked like or all of those things, that definitely was part of our strategy but not in the way people probably think. We were using our looks and the way people perceive us to have people think that we weren't a threat. To have people have their guards down around us a little more, thinking that all we cared about were our looks. We played that up, put on our makeup, and talked about how that is all we cared about intentionally in front of people. We knew they weren't going to take us seriously and knew they weren't going to think that we posed a big threat. That absolutely worked in our favor, worked exactly how we thought it would for the first couple of episodes until people realized. We were masking our athleticism, the fact that we had traveled extensively, and that we are smart. People just underestimated us, and then they became very aware of those facts after the first couple of episodes when we came in sixth and then tied for second in the second episode. They realized that we were a force to be reckon with and we were contenders to deal with. At that point, our strategy changed a little bit because that was no longer effective.

JC: Right. At the beginning of this season, it looked like Ari and Staella were being set up to be the villains of this season. How did you think you were going to be portrayed on the show?

JM: Well nobody wants to like the blondes. I don't think anyone wants to like the blondes in any season. I even think the beauty queens, up until the 7th leg, weren't really liked. I think that we were targeted as the villains as well. We were projected as these good looking, LA girls, that lived the high life. That is not who we are really. That was all a story told by the show that worked for them, and that's how the setting was set.

JC: So you don't think you were portrayed accurately on the show then?

SW: No, we don't.

JM: Well no...

SW: Not extremely. We weren't slandered on the show or anything. We said the things we said, we did the things we did, but definitely the perception of us is not the reality of us.

JM: I mean, yeah, they would ask me if I thought I was the prettiest girl on The Amazing Race, and I said yeah, but I don't think I am at all. I don't tell people that I am this gorgeous girl. I'm not like that. I'm really a humble, honest person. But on this race we are supposed to be gorgeous and looking great. Yes, I try to look the best that I can, but that's because I'm trying to better myself. Better who I am, what I'm all about, and how I feel about myself. But all of that helps with my confidence. But I understand. Looking at Shana and I, I would have thought the same perception as well. The story works with us, it really does.

SW: I think we both went into it thinking we wanted to look our best, we wanted to look our best all the time, but we wanted to look our best on the race, but our best came from having no makeup on and not caring. That all goes out the window once you start racing. The vanity just goes. We never put on our makeup other than some lip gloss. We just didn't. We were racing, racing, racing. You're not showering and you don't smell good or look good. You just don't care.

JM: You're a mess. I mean my dad called me, because he said he never saw me look so bad.

SW: Right, it's a race you can't think about it.

JM: Yeah, I told my dad it's race, you are not supposed to look good.

SW: Our minds are boggled how Dustin and Kandice were able to put on their makeup. We didn't have a mirror, all of that just went out the window.

JM: Yeah, and any little bit of downtime we had went towards researching or looking or running or...

SW: ...washing our clothes or whatever.

JM: We just didn't have time for that.

JC: Yeah. Why do you think an all-female team has never won The Amazing Race then?

JM: I believe that's the case because the strength and agility of a man and a woman team is hard to compete with. I think that me and Shana could have won this race. I think our biggest downfall was not what was perceived on the show, in that we were arguing all the time, but really it was because we just couldn't get anywhere. Men generally have really good sense of direction, and I must say at the beginning of this show, Shana and I were kinda alienated from the other teams. But we put ourselves in that place. We didn't want to align with anyone, and just kinda kept to ourselves. But men have a comradery and the men in the teams kinda bonded together. Jason bonded with Azaria, who bonded with TK, who bonded with Nathan. It's kinda hard when you have teams bonding like that and can help each other get through until the pit stops. Then, you have us doing it all on our own. I'm not trying to say that this is in all cases, but women can't really navigate as well.

SW: Generally speaking, men get around better and navigate better. So that is one of things. I think in terms of the physical aspects of it, Jen and I proved that we were as strong if not stronger than some of the teams with men on it.

JM: Yeah, Shana hoisted that furniture faster than most of the men. Watching the show back, she did it fast at the roadblock at the end.

SW: And I did it by myself. Everyone else switched. All of the guys didn't do it on their own.

JM: We didn't know we could switch, but also on the roadblock on the last leg, Shana did that in about 15 minutes. Nicolas was standing there for two hours and 15 minutes. I do think we could have won this, but the navigating...

SW: The navigating really got us.

JC: Right. Lets go back to the "U-Turn" decision. You both had different thoughts on using it on Jason and Lorena. Was there any discussion at all about using it, because it looked like Shana just decided for the team?

JM: Well when we got on the bus, Shana said that we were going to "U-Turn" Jason and Lorena, because they said that there was a "U-Turn" ahead. I had expressed at that time that I didn't think we should use it on Jason and Lorena. So that started the discussion. Once we got there, and she thought she saw Jason and Lorena behind us, it made a little more sense that we needed to "U-Turn" them, if they were right behind us because they could have easily caught up. But I think Shana has some stuff to say about this.

SW: No, I think that is right. I mean we are in a game and the bottom line is we did it and we stand by it. I think it was the right decision, since we did make it through that episode. Everyone is going to disagree and have their own opinions when are dealing with two separate people, but we had disagreements about a lot of things during the whole show. But we also supported the decisions that we made and didn't argue any more or less than anyone else. Everyone else was going through the same stuff. Someone had to make the decision, but we gave it 150% and we stand behind all of our decisions.

JM: Also, I could have told all the teams that "it wasn't me, it was Shana. Shana wanted to do that." But I didn't do that. I specifically told Shana that once we decided to use the "U-Turn", as we were running, I said "I will stick by you and I'm not going to throw you under the bus. I'm going to say that it was my decision as well." And that is what I did. I didn't go around saying that it wasn't really my decision. I didn't say that. We decided...

SW: You did. You did tell some teams that.

JM: No, I didn't. After like five minutes of him asking me why I did that, I finally said that it wasn't all my decision. But only after talking for like five minutes, I didn't just go and say that to everyone. That wasn't my intention at all. I just think that when we were in the van, we decided that you can't get anywhere on this race if you are arguing all the time. We need to make a decision, and at the beginning of this race we decided that if we did scream, one of us would have to give in and we would just have to go for it. I mean, be it on a "Detour" or a "Roadblock" or whatever we decided to do it, we knew we both had to be in on it. And that is what we tried to do the whole race.

JC: Yeah. Would either of you say that you made a mistake on the show? And if you did, what was the biggest mistake you made on the race?

SW: We don't think we made any big mistakes. I mean, in hindsight, there was this whole "Fast-Forward" that no one saw because no teams chose it. In hindsight, if we had chosen the "fast-forward", we would have finished first. But the problem was we were the last team to get to the "fast-forward" and it was a hour or so away from the other "detour". So we chose not to do it, because we figured if we were the last team there someone else probably had chosen it already. And if we chose it and got there and saw that we had to drive some place else, we definitely would have been off the show. After realizing no one chose it, of course, we wouldn't have done that. We would have chose that and would have ended up in first place. But we didn't know that, so we did make the right decisions based on what we knew. I think we made all of the decisions we could have made. I think the only thing I would say was the stilts and the counting, the last one, we would have excelled at the stilts and would have done that more quickly than the counting.
JM: I feel like if I could change anything in the race, I would change the comments that I had made on the train ride in Africa. I loved Africa, and I feel like I was culturally and spiritually inspired by Africa. And I think the things that we were saying, were really how we were feeling about ourselves. It nothing to do with the train ride or Africa or the people of Africa. It was taken completely out of context and based on those thoughts I would have rather not even joked around about anything. Shana and I were bantering between ourselves. It had nothing to do with the way they were editing it at all.

JC: Right. Did either of you learn something about your partner that you didn't know before you did the race?

JM: Absolutely. I didn't know that Shana was as determined as she was. I didn't know she was as strong as she was. She inspired me the whole race to better myself and to push myself that much harder. The drive and determination that came from inside of her, I didn't know where that came from. She had bronchitis the majority of the show, so when you have bronchitis you are tired and she wasn't eating as much. I still don't know where she got the fuel from.

SW: Thank you. That's really nice. The same thing with Jen. She could wrap her brain around things like she drank that camel's milk. She did that camel challenge and never lost her composure or lose her cool. She did it and drank the milk, and never once complained about it. That milk was brutal, but she just did it and kept walking. Jen said "don't say the word camel to me!"

JM: We didn't say the word 'camel' for a couple of weeks afterwards.

SW: But she did it and didn't complain about it. That's the kind of things that I was impressed by, because I literally don't think I could wrap my brain around the fact that I had to drink that. So I am appreciative that she did it. She was really good with those kinds of things.

JC: Alright, very cool. Well that is all I have for you. Thanks for your time and good luck with everything.

SW: Thank you!

JM: Thank you so much!

Source : http://realitydish.insidepulse.com/articles/72320/2007/12/03/random-reality-josh-clinton-interviews-ithe-amazing-race-12is-shana-wall-and-jennifer-mccall.html

Offline puddin

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #28 on: December 04, 2007, 11:17:48 AM »
good find Pedaler  :yess:! Now I'll have to watch the show again, not that I mind, to see if we can see a hint of the FF clue..

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #29 on: December 04, 2007, 11:25:25 AM »
OMG! Thank you for this!   :jam:  I've been expecting a FF sometime soon....

No I have nothing except that I wonder if this wasn't supposed to be at Trakai Water Castle. That was such a beautiful spot to end up not being used at all and would fit the about an hour away comment.

Darn--we could have had FF drama?? Instead of all that sitting around  arguing about flights?  (:;)
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Offline puddin

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #30 on: December 04, 2007, 12:45:31 PM »
I was just thinking the castle too peachs so we might not know until the racers spill the beans.

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #31 on: December 04, 2007, 01:39:55 PM »
Doggone--if there was still a Finish Line I could have asked!!
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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #32 on: December 04, 2007, 02:55:09 PM »
And I could have told Peggy she looks lovely again!

I'll have to check my episodes again to see if there was anything about a FF.
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Offline puddin

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #33 on: December 04, 2007, 08:06:22 PM »
I haven't read this yet but heres another one~~


INTERVIEW: Shana Wall, Jennifer McCall dish on 'The Amazing Race'

 
By Christopher Rocchio, 12/04/2007

Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall feel all the bad directions they received played a more prominent role in their elimination than karma or constant arguing.


Regardless, the friends from Los Angeles, CA became the fifth team ousted from The Amazing Race's twelfth season during Sunday night's broadcast of the CBS reality series.

On Monday, Shana, a 32-year-old actress, and Jennifer, a 32-year-old legal assistant, talked to Reality TV World about how a case of mistaken identity led them to use a U-Turn; why they still don't regret that decision; why one of their numerous wrong turns almost put them in the hospital; how they almost caught a flight that would have changed the complexion of the race; and why they feel they were the victims of poor editing on more than one occasion.

Reality TV World:  How were you cast for The Amazing Race 12?  Was it your first time applying for the show?

Jennifer:  Yeah, it was our first time applying for the show.  We sent in a really good tape and...
Shana:  Well I was approached by one of the casting directors and asked if I wanted to audition for the show.  So that was the original way it came about, and then from there we went on and made a tape and did all the auditioning process that everybody else did.

Reality TV World:  Had you watched The Amazing Race before? 

Jennifer:  I had seen every episode from every season, and by the end I think Shana almost did too.
Shana:  Yeah, we were both fans of the show to begin with.  But once we knew we were going we went ahead and watched every single one.

Reality TV World:  That sounds like something you did to prepare for the show.  Did you do anything else to prepare yourselves both physically and mentally for the competition?

Shana:  Well, we watched all the shows -- and when we say "watched them" -- we would watch them, pause them, stop them.  Jen would look at what everyone was carrying in their backpacks... We watched all the mistakes people made and how we would have done things differently.  We watched to find out if there was a pattern in the places that they went to, and then we would go research those places.  What their transportation systems were, what languages we needed to brush-up on... All that sort of stuff.  Jen did a lot of research on packing -- like we bought tennis shoes that have no shoe laces -- so we would never have a problem of our shoelaces untying and us tripping over them.

Reality TV World:  Had either of you previously done a lot of international traveling? Do you know any foreign languages?

Shana:  We both traveled extensively... Jen speaks some French and I speak some Italian and some Spanish.  We've both traveled internationally a lot.  I lived in Italy for a while and Mexico City and I traveled all over South America and Europe.  Jen's traveled all over... We totally have the travel bug (laughing)!

Reality TV World:  Were there any teams you initially butted heads with?  Any teams that you got along with really well?

Jennifer:  You know, we were kind of outcasts since the beginning.  Shana and I were really on a team of our own, and that's how we wanted to run the race.  We did not make alliances with anyone.  We had some mini-alliances with ["Sisters" Marianna and Julia Ruiz] on the first leg because everyone else had aligned together... Nobody warmed up to us really, and I don't think they warmed-up to the sisters either.
Shana:  I felt like I liked the sisters right away.  They're just a team that I felt good about and I liked right away.  I think a lot of people didn't feel that way about them, but I did.  I just liked them.  You know, ["Dating Couple" Lorena Segura and Jason Widener] are very nice.  We liked them.  But like Jen said, we didn't have any alliances at all...

Reality TV World:  Who do you think spent more time focusing on their makeup and appearances during the race -- your team or the "Dating Goths" Kynt Cothron and Vyxsin Fiala?

Shana:  We spent no time...
Jennifer:  I think they're switching their make-up!  We tried to figure this out.  I lost my make-up in Amsterdam, and that's why it was all downhill for me.  But we did try to wear make-up... We tried.  I really don't know how they did it...
Shana:  We tried in the beginning or if there was an occasion where we had a hotel, we would wash our hair and freshen up then.  But other than that -- when we were running the race and we were not in a hotel or anything like that -- there was no make-up happening except for our lip gloss.  We had chapped lips, and we would slap that on often.  But that was it.  That was literally it.  So we were amazed that the Goths put their make-up on.  It's one of the wonders (laughing)...

Reality TV World:  During the first three legs of the course, you two remained in the middle of the pack.  Were you confident that you'd be able to remain in the race without ever being at the front of the pack?

Shana:  That's not true... In Episode 2 we tied for second-place [with "Dating Couple" Jennifer Parker and Nathan Hagstrom].
Jennifer:  Right, and leaving [Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso] when we got off the plane in [Vilnius, Lithuania], we were second, and I'm not really sure how it was edited that we were fourth out of the parking lot.  That's still kind of a mystery to me.  We were right behind ["Brother/Sister" team Azaria and Hendekea Azene].  We were actually right ahead of Hendekea and Azaria, but we took a left [out of the airport parking lot] and they took a right...
Shana:  But I think you're referring to how we tallied at the end of each leg, right?

Reality TV World:  Yeah.

Jennifer:  We thought we were going to make it to the beginning [of the pack] at this [leg of the race]... and I actually thought we were going to...
Shana:  We thought we were going to win.  We were determined to win... and we could have if it wasn't for the circumstances.
Jennifer:  We definitely had this race.  Our downfall was the navigation:  We got lost.  But everyone else got lost, we just got lost more.
Shana:  We got more lost, yeah (laughing)...

Reality TV World:  When you arrived at the fourth leg's U-Turn, why did you decide to use it on Jason and Lorena?  Did you think they were the team that was right behind when it was actually "Newly Dating Couple" Rachel Rosales and TK Erwin?

Shana:  I'll explain this one.  We left [the third leg's Pit Stop], and the order in which we left, Jason and Lorena were the only team behind us.  They were behind us by like an hour and 20 minutes.  So when we finished the Detour and we saw the U-Turn -- we were walking towards that U-Turn box -- I thought I saw Jason and Lorena walking to the box...
Jennifer:  The clue box.
Shana:  ... the clue box.  So I saw them, and I said... Because there's no one else it could have been because everyone else was ahead of us... or so I thought.  I said, "That's Jason and Lorena!  They're already here!  Oh my God, we don't know how they caught-up with the hour-and-20-minutes."  But I said, "If that's them, they're going to do this Detour and they can definitely catch-up, and then it's one or the other.  One of us was going to be eliminated, so we had to use the U-Turn."  What I realize now is -- after we put the U-Turn on and after watching the show -- it was TK and Rachel going back to the clue box because they had changed.  They went to the ["Shake Your Booty" Detour challenge] first, and then walked back to the clue box to do the ["Shake Your Pan" detour challenge]...

Reality TV World:  So when was it that you first learned of that mistake?

Shana:  Not until after we put the U-Turn on and we were walking away from the clue box, we saw TK and Rachel behind us.

Reality TV World:  I see.  So what was your reaction when you learned that you'd confused TK and Rachel for Jason and Lorena?

Shana:  Well either way it didn't matter to me, because I thought as long as we're not last, somebody's eliminated and it's not us and that's a good thing.  If we [used the U-Turn] on TK and Rachel, they still could have caught-up and passed us because they were right there.

Reality TV World:  So even knowing it was TK and Rachel behind you and not Jason and Lorena, you still don't regret your decision to U-Turn Jason and Lorena?

Shana:  It worked out because we were still on the show and Jason and Lorena were off.
Jennifer:  It worked out.  It might have been interesting if we used it on TK and Rachel, but you know what?  That's all...
Shana:  But we couldn't of [used it on TK and Rachel] because when we used it we did not know they were behind us.  So that wasn't an option...

Reality TV World:  Jennifer you seemed to regret the decision to use the U-Turn almost immediately after you did it.  Was that the case, and if so why?

Jennifer:  I mean honestly -- strategically -- I think you should save the U-Turn for later on in the game. [Editor's Note:  Each U-Turn obstacle can only be used by one team, and each team can only use a U-Turn once during the entire race.]  I just thought we had just finished that Detour, we were on our way to the Roadblock -- or so I thought we were going to go to a Roadblock, that was my assumption -- and I just didn't think that we needed [the U-Turn].  I thought that Jason and Lorena were an hour and 20 minutes behind us -- or maybe even 45 minutes -- and Shana and I really tackled those Roadblocks and Detours.  In every episode we excelled, and those were our strongest points.  So I just didn't think... and plus we had a taxi-cab driver [to follow], so I didn't think we were going to have a problem getting anywhere and I didn't foresee any problems at the Detours or the Roadblocks for us.

Reality TV World:  Jennifer you also commented "karma's a bitch."  Do you think karma played a role in your eventual ouster?

Jennifer:  It's really editing.  When you do something -- and you're not 100% with it -- all these normal thoughts go into your head and you start replaying everything.  That was one of the thoughts that I thought.  But that's not the most important thought.  The most important thought to me was we don't need to use [the U-Turn] this soon in the game.  I did say ["karma's a bitch"], yes, and they edited it that way because I think it makes great for TV.  So yeah, obviously karma got us, but I don't think that's what got us.
Shana:  It wasn't karma, because we played an honest, honest game.  We never did anything sneaky, underhanded or malicious or lied to anybody or did anything unethical.  The U-Turn was a major part of the game -- and we played the game -- so that has nothing to do with karma.  If anything, our karma was good because we played very honestly.

Reality TV World:  How did the other teams react to you using the U-Turn?

Jennifer:  I think we were worried when we first got to the [fourth leg's Pit Stop], what the reaction as going to be.  And I think everyone really -- to our face -- supported us.
Shana:  Yeah, everyone pretty much said that was smart and, "We would have done the same thing."
Jennifer:  Now watching it back, TK didn't really agree with it.  But I... All he had said to me was, "You guys need to really..." I can't really remember verbatim what he said, but it was something like, "You need to stand by your decision," or something like that.  And I said, "Yeah.  I know.  We do."  But once I watched it back and I heard him say... Do you know what he said Shana? He made a comment
Shana:  Yeah, I don't know.  But in terms of when we talked to everybody about it -- because we felt bad because we really like Jason and Lorena a lot -- everyone said, "We would have done the same thing.  It's a game, don't feel bad about it."

Reality TV World:  Did the U-Turn actually increase the amount of bickering between you, or did the show's editing just not show as much of your arguing before then?

Jennifer:  They just didn't show any of that.  They showed it in the last episode.
Shana:  They just... Yeah, it was in the editing, you could see us arguing more later.  But we spoke that way the whole time.  We disagreed on things or bickered about the whole process, but not in an argumentative way.  I mean, we weren't ever mad at each other.  When it's all said and done, like, we were over it.  It was just kind of the way we dealt with our stress and the decision-making process.  We did fight the whole time, but no more or less than every other person that was there.

Reality TV World:  Do you guys normally bicker that much outside of the race?

Shana:  No.  When we're in normal life without the extreme hunger and exhaustion and a $1 million race... Those extreme circumstances were definitely it, that's not how we talk.

Reality TV World:  Seeing as how it took you from the front of the pack to the back -- as you already mentioned, you were in second leaving the airport -- what led you to take the wrong turn leaving the Vilnius airport?  You two took a left when you were supposed to take a right.

Jennifer:  We asked the guy standing in the median, which way was... I think it was the A-28 highway.  He said it was to the left.  So we went left.  They didn't show that.
Shana:  (laughing)  We got a lot of bad directions.
Jennifer:  Yeah, we got really bad directions all the time.

Reality TV World:  How long were you lost for?

Jennifer:  Well they didn't show this, but we actually circled all the way back around.  So it was like an hour and 20 minutes...
Shana:  I think we drove for about four hours at one point, right?
Jennifer: Yeah...
Shana:  We were lost forever!

Reality TV World:  What was going through your mind when you saw that bus bearing down on you?  Was it really as close to hitting you as it seemed during the episode?

Shana:  It was closer.  It actually touched the car.
Jennifer:  I don't know!  I didn't think it was that big of a deal!  My car stalled...

Reality TV World:  Ah, I see.

Jennifer:  Yeah, the car stalled.  I've got very good reflexes, so I was getting it going and I was getting it in drive.  I think the bus might have hit us had the car not started and the gas gone quickly.
Shana:  It would have.
Jennifer:  It would have...
Shana:  The bus came... I was in the backseat, so for me, it was a lot scarier than I think Jen could see from her perspective...
Jennifer:  Right.
Shana:  But the bus... I just thought that I was going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life if I lived through this.  The bus practically touched the car, it came to a screeching halt.  It might have been like an inch from my door.  Really, really terrifying.

Reality TV World:  Despite your troubles finding the fifth leg's Roadblock, you were able to finish it before "Grandfather/Grandson" team Donald Jerousek and Nicolas Fulks.  How confident were you heading into the Detour challenge that you wouldn't be eliminated?

Shana:  We were very stressed out about it... Very, very stressed out about it.
Jennifer:  We were not confident at all.  I was crying in the car.
Shana:  Yeah, we were crying.  We were upset.  What it was is, we were two hours behind Gramps and Nick when we got to that [Roadblock] challenge.  We already thought it was over.  Then when we saw them standing there, we were like, "Oh my God!  We have a chance here!" Then I did that challenge in like 10 or 15 minutes, that took them two-and-a-half hours to do.  We ended up leaving about 30-seconds ahead of them, but got bad directions again...
Jennifer:  A lady pointed us around the corner and once we got around the corner, then another lady helped us and showed us exactly where to go.
Shana:  That was 15 minutes, and those 15 minutes cost us the game.  I mean we lost by 15 minutes to Gramps and Nick...

Reality TV World:  So you were 15 minutes behind Nick and Don in reaching the Pit Stop?

Shana and Jennifer:  Yeah...

Reality TV World:  So did you not really have any problems with the "Count Down" Detour challenge, you were just behind from the start? Or were there problems?

Shana:  That was a rough one too, but we did it.  It just took us a few tries...

Reality TV World:  Following your elimination, Jennifer you said you're aware of the differences you and Shana have about what's right and wrong but will always be friends.  Do you think participating in The Amazing Race strengthened your friendship?

Jennifer:  Absolutely.  I think going through this experience with Shana, we have a new-found respect for each other.  I can't really speak for her, but I think she agrees.  I never knew Shana has this inner-strength that she has.  She inspired me throughout the race.  I'm a really determined person, and we both have a lot of similar characteristics, and I think just watching her do what she did made me work that much harder and try to be that much better of a partner.
Shana:  I feel the exact same way.  Jen could wrap her brain around things mentally and drink that camel's milk [during the third leg's Roadblock challenge], I could have probably never done.  We both had our strengths, we both had our weaknesses, but we both definitely pulled each other through.

Reality TV World:  What else did you take away from the race?  Has getting out of your "comfortable" lives for a while made you a little less concerned about your appearance?

Jennifer:  I think going through this race you have a newfound appreciation for things that are important and things that are not important.  For me, I feel like... Everyone gets into their little niche, and they do the same thing everyday. I feel like I'm not going to do that anymore.  I'm not going to fit myself into that anymore.  I want to go do things.  I want to break away from that and explore things.  My priorities have changed a lot.  Things that were important to me before the race I've found are not as important to me now.  What about you Shana?
Shana:  I feel like -- in terms of comfortable lifestyles -- we've both have always traveled all over, so we both experienced a lot of other cultures and lifestyles and we know what's out there in the world and how different our city is that we live in.  So it's not like it was a shock to us -- or our priorities necessarily changed that much -- because we had seen this before.  But definitely what it gave me is... You know, you go through these extreme circumstances and situations and you do things you think you could never do, ever in a million years, and go through situations you would never think you could go through.  And you realize what you're capable of doing when you set your mind to it.  I mean hoisting all that furniture [during the second leg's Detour challenge] up that weighed more than me.  Or just getting through the lack of sleep and lack of food, and seeing these other cultures in Africa... I realized anything you set your mind to, you can do.  We both came back with that newfound attitude and its propelling us forward in our day-today lives, knowing we can do anything we put our mind to.  That's what the race has given us, it's shown us what we're made of.
Jennifer:  I think what I meant when I said that things weren't as important to me, I mean like I am obsessed with fashion.  I sew my own clothes sometimes, and I love handbags.  Those handbags just aren't as important to me anymore... I'm not buying anything.  I've become comfortable with what I have and I'm happy with what I have.  I don't need anymore right now.

Reality TV World:  Maybe it was just the editing, but you guys seemed to be more vocal than the other teams about some of the third-world living conditions.  Why do you think that was the case?

Jennifer:  I think it really had a lot to do with editing.  Everyone was saying a lot of things about the places that we were, and they showed things that we said.  I think Africa was culturally and spiritually inspirational to both of us, and I think that things that we said were taken out of context completely.  We were really saying things about how we were feeling about ourselves...
Shana:  When I referred to Jen [on the train in Africa], I said, "Oh, did you get a new outfit?  Is that a new perfume?"  That was my light-hearted humor.  I was saying, "Oh my God!  We've been in these same clothes everyday for weeks."  It was a joke. Like, "Oh, is that a new outfit?  I haven't seen that before!"  We were wearing the same thing everyday.  "Oh is that a new perfume?"  Because we've been in Africa sleeping on the ground and hadn't taken a shower in days, so we were stinky.  The way it was edited, they showed a woman that wasn't even sitting near us -- and they show me saying that -- and it made it seem like I'm referring to the African people [on the train with us].  We were completely having a light-hearted moment with each other about each other.  It was taken out of context.  But Africa deeply, deeply, deeply affected both Jen and I.  Teaching the kid in Africa [during the third leg's Detour challenge] was for both of us, the most memorable thing.  We will never forget his face and we hugged him and we spent a lot of time with him...  These people in Africa, who are in such extreme poverty in these extreme situations, they don't know it.  They don't act like they know it.  They have these smiles on their faces from ear-to-ear.  They're just warm and smiley and it brings you to tears... I mean we were very affected by Africa.

Reality TV World:  During your post-elimination Elimination Station interview on CBS.com, Jennifer you said you saw a "completely different side" of Hendekea's personality while on the race.  What did you mean by that?

Jennifer:  I think that the airport situation [in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso] was obviously in my eyes a little bit more... When Hendekea pushed the door [at the ticket office] to listen to Shana and I changing our seats, I think it was more dramatic in my eyes than what it really was.  So I think I over-exaggerated it. Because to me, that was a big deal.  I give people respect and I give them space, and I just felt like we should have been given that respect as well.  But you can expect those things from people if they don't know what you're expecting.  So when I asked [Hendekea] if she could please let us have our space because we were trying to do this -- it was a strategic move on our part that had been working throughout the entire race -- we wanted to do this and didn't what everybody to know what we were doing because then they would come and do the same...
Shana:  What happened was, we were looking for a better flight and we didn't want everyone to know that.  [Hendekea] was being a little aggressive, and confrontational at that point...
Jennifer:  And they didn't show it!
Shana:  We were actually in there looking for an earlier flight, which we found and which we bought tickets for.  But the window of time to get from our flight to the next flight -- the connecting flight -- was so small.  But we bought the tickets, and we thought if we could have gotten on it, it would have brought us into [Vilnius] an hour before everybody else...
Jennifer:  We would have made it, but we didn't think that we could do it, so we didn't get the seats.  We didn't have actual boarding passes...
Shana:  We didn't have our boarding passes.  So when we landed -- they didn't show any of this -- but we ran from that first leg of the flight, we ran, ran, ran and got there just as the doors were closing and couldn't get on.
Jennifer:  But they would have let us on, but we didn't have boarding passes.
Shana:  We didn't have the boarding pass... But that was what we were trying to do, and we didn't want everyone else to know.
Jennifer:  Hendekea, she was really pushing the door and standing there for quite some time.  This whole ordeal may have happened, like over 40 minutes...
Shana:  Yeah, it was a long process...
Jennifer:  It just seemed really small, and they didn't really touch a lot on it in the show, so it was a little confusing.

Reality TV World:  Shana we read a report that you had to keep your participation in The Amazing Race a secret from your ex-boyfriend Ryan Seacrest.  What was his reaction when he learned you were doing the race?

Shana:  He didn't learn it...

Reality TV World:  Until he saw it?

Shana:  Close to that, yeah.  His reaction was he was beyond impressed.  He said, "You did that!?  I can't believe you could actually do that! I could never do that!  That's unbelievable."  He was really, really, really, really impressed -- and maybe even for the first time ever -- a little speechless (laughing).

Reality TV World:  What's your current relationship with Ryan?

Shana:  We're very close.  We're close friends.  We've known each other for six years.  You know we love each other and we're very supportive of each other.  We talk probably everyday.  He's great.  He's been very supportive.

Reality TV World:  What was the toughest part about competing on The Amazing Race?

Shana:  (laughing)  The hunger and the sleep-deprivation...
Jennifer:  Missing my family.  That was hard.  But it wasn't as hard as the hunger and sleep-deprivation, because you forget about your family (laughing).
Shana:  We were freezing and wet and hungry and tired the whole time (laughing).

Reality TV World:  Which team would you like to see win the $1 million prize?  Anybody you don't want to see win?

Jennifer:  For me, I'd really like to see TK and Rachel make it... I just really like them and I think they're good people.
Shana:  I'm pushing for ["Father/Daughter" team Ronald and Christina Hsu].  That's who I would like to see win because they were just very kind people.  I had bronchitis and I was sick and Ron was always giving me his special Chinese multivitamins and trying to be fatherly.  Christina gave me a warm piece of clothing at one point because all my stuff was wet and I was so sick with bronchitis and had nothing dry to put on.  Just very kind... They were very kind and I'm rooting for them.

Reality TV World:  Anybody you don't want to see win?

Shana:  I'd say it's anyone's race.  Any one of us could have won it.  I'm not going to say who I wouldn't want to see win because everybody puts so much into [the race]...

Reality TV World:  If you had won, what were your plans for the $1 million prize?

Jennifer:  I'm really into global warming and I hate using our natural resources, so I wanted to get solar panels and I kind of would like to have a farm.  It sounds kind of funny, but I'm a vegetarian and I just want to live off of my land.  I wanted to do things like that...
Shana:  I moved out of my apartment and put all of my stuff in storage in order to go on the show, so I need to get a place.  I also work with animals charities, rescuing dogs that are in danger of being euthanized in shelters around L.A.  I'm a big animal activist.  I want to help financially and physically with the animal charities I work with.

Reality TV World:  So what's next for you two? 

Shana:  I just launched a website called thehotdishtv.com, and it's kind of a website where you can go to find out what's hot in restaurants, nightlife, travel, horoscopes, the dog adoptions, the dog rescues.  I went through chef school -- so I cook -- I put my recipes up there and do restaurant reviews.  I've been working on my hosting and acting, and ultimately I would love to host a show that involves talking about food and traveling around the world...
Jennifer:  I'm writing a book about my life story.  It has nothing to do with the race.  I was basically abandoned by my mother when I was 13 for drugs, and I found her 15-years later living in a desert.  So I helped her out of that and we have a good relationship now.


http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/interview-shana-wall-jennifer-mccall-dish-on-the-amazing-race-6210.php

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #34 on: December 04, 2007, 09:41:04 PM »
That was a really good interview. They do blame the editing quite a bit. As Bill Parcells says, "You are what you are."

I still didn't like them on the race, but I'm sure they're nice outside.
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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #35 on: December 05, 2007, 10:59:59 PM »
More on the FF~
JC: Yeah. Would either of you say that you made a mistake on the show? And if you did, what was the biggest mistake you made on the race?

SW: We don't think we made any big mistakes. I mean, in hindsight, there was this whole "Fast-Forward" that no one saw because no teams chose it. In hindsight, if we had chosen the "fast-forward", we would have finished first. But the problem was we were the last team to get to the "fast-forward" and it was a hour or so away from the other "detour". So we chose not to do it, because we figured if we were the last team there someone else probably had chosen it already. And if we chose it and got there and saw that we had to drive some place else, we definitely would have been off the show. After realizing no one chose it, of course, we wouldn't have done that. We would have chose that and would have ended up in first place. But we didn't know that, so we did make the right decisions based on what we knew. I think we made all of the decisions we could have made. I think the only thing I would say was the stilts and the counting, the last one, we would have excelled at the stilts and would have done that more quickly than the counting.

http://realitydish.insidepulse.com/articles/72320/2007/12/03/random-reality-josh-clinton-interviews-ithe-amazing-race-12is-shana-wall-and-jennifer-mccall.html

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #36 on: December 05, 2007, 11:12:37 PM »
If that's true, then the task should have been planned to be closer; hiring a helo that no one wants means a lot of litas wasted.

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #37 on: December 05, 2007, 11:18:41 PM »
TPTB probably wouldn't have shown us anyway, 30 some minutes spent booking tickets out of Burkina, how could they have fit it in  :cmas3 :cmas11 :hand: :knuckles:

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #38 on: December 06, 2007, 09:17:47 AM »
Unless someone really zipped through it.. It would have been nice to see someone try to take it.
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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #39 on: December 06, 2007, 09:46:31 PM »
A Blonde Farewell on The Amazing Race
By ROCHELL D. THOMAS
TV GUIDE

Their bickering and poor navigation skills may have gotten Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall (aka the Blondes, Part 2) ousted from The Amazing Race 12, but it's their videotaped words that haunt them. On the road, they were full of zippy one-liners and quips they found funny in the moment. But as they've played back in prime time, they've painted the women in an unflattering light, teaching us all a lesson: Be careful what you say when you're on The Race, as your words may be used against you.
TVGuide.com: What do you do in your daily lives that allowed you to take time off for the Race?
Jennifer McCall: Neither of us could just take off. I'm a legal assistant. I had to do six weeks worth of work to cover myself so I wouldn't lose my job. I had to work almost 18-hour days to make up for the time that I was gone. And Shana made big sacrifices.
Shana Wall: I'm an actress. And I had to take off that amount of time and not have an income. So I moved out of my apartment. I put all my stuff in storage and said, "Let's go for this! Hopefully I'll come back with half a million dollars."

TVGuide.com: That was a big gamble. Where are you living now?
Shana: At my parents' house. But it was worth it.

TVGuide.com: It seemed like the Lithuania leg wasn't for you. You two fought all the time. You almost died, then you came in last place.
Shana: We loved, loved, loved Lithuania. It was one of our favorite places. It was breathtakingly beautiful.
Jennifer: And the people went out of their way to help us. After the roadblock, we got a little lost [on the way to the next village]. This woman was walking down the street, and I asked if she knew where the next stop was. Even though she had groceries in her hand, she got in our car and drove with us, probably more than a mile, just to show us the exact highway that we needed to be on. Then she got out and walked back.
Shana: That happened during the roadblock that I did, too. A bunch of people ran with me when I asked for their help.
Jennifer: They didn't show this, but Shana was only gone 10 or 15 minutes at most for that roadblock.
Shana: This was the roadblock where I had to do four things in a row. Gramps and Grandson were there for two-and-a-half hours.
Jennifer: And Shana finished it in 15 minutes. We did this all the time, though. The donkeys [in Ireland]? We ran that donkey and we passed six teams to get ahead. But then we got lost trying to get to the museum.
Shana: Our downfall was our navigating and our driving.

TVGuide.com: How did you decide who would do the driving?
Shana: I would navigate and Jen would drive most of the time because I thought I was better at navigating and she was better at driving — except for the bus incident.

TVGuide.com: Speaking of that, Jen, how many times did you have to apologize later for almost getting your team killed?
Shana: Well, it was just one of those things that happened. She backed out and the bus was coming. The car stalled. She couldn't get it to go because it was a stick shift. She apologized. After that, we were in race mode again. We didn't really think about it anymore.

TVGuide.com: Let's talk about the U-turn you used on Lorena and Jason last week. It seemed like Jen didn't want to use it but Shana did.
Jennifer: I thought it was too early in the race. I had no problem with the idea of using a U-turn; I just wanted to do it later in the game.

TVGuide.com: After the U-turn, you two seemed to be arguing more.
Shana: That was editing. We were arguing the same in the beginning as we did at the end.
Jennifer: But they showed it more at the very end.
Shana: When we argued, it was just in the moment. As soon as we'd get to each pit stop, we'd give each other a hug.
Jennifer: And it was a distant memory. Shana and I were so supportive of each other. When she fell in the mud, I was helping her get herself together and get into dry clothes. Shana was sick almost the entire race.
Shana: I got bronchitis in Ireland on Day 1 because it was pouring rain and freezing.

TVGuide.com: Several times throughout the show, you admitted that you're normally very pampered women. What was the hardest thing to do without?
Shana: I would not say that we're super-pampered. We weren't thinking of manicures, pedicures or any of that because we were just racing, racing, racing. But the questions [producers] asked were, "This is different from your life back in Los Angeles. You're not going to get a manicure, pedicure here." So we were answering questions.

TVGuide.com: What other things did you say on camera that you now wish you hadn't?
Jennifer: I'm upset about the Africa comment. The way they edited it, TK and Rachel were standing there and you could see a woman walking down the aisle. TK says, "Did you smell that woman?" And, all of a sudden they pan to us, and Shana says, "Jen, is that a new outfit you're wearing? Is that new perfume you're wearing?"
Shana: We were kidding around. We'd been on that train for three hours. We'd been deeply affected the whole time, looking at all these people. They didn't show any of that. I said that because we stank. We were in Africa for days, sleeping on the ground, and we hadn't showered.
Jennifer: We hadn't changed clothes for nine days.
Shana: I was referring to us, but during the editing they cut over to another woman on the train who wasn't even sitting next to us and made it seem like I was referring to people in Africa's clothing or smell.

TVGuide.com: What about the time Jen said "We're going to be sold to people for money"?
Shana: That was our lighthearted sense of humor.
Jennifer: I hope this isn't taken wrong, but Shana would get a little panicky because we were getting lost all the time. When we were in [Bingo] and it started storming, she couldn't see the street names and she was trying to ask the driver in French, "What street are we on?" And he wasn't answering. So, I was saying, "Where do you think they're taking us? They're going to take us to be sold for money." It was a joke. Now I realize I probably shouldn't have said that. But that's my humor. I highly doubt people in Africa are going to pay for us. Come on.

TVGuide.com: In the first episode, you two announced you were planning to flirt your way around the world and "use our bodies however we need to." What happened?
Shana: Little joke. They asked us if we would be willing to flirt and we said we would happily flirt our way through the competition if we needed to—that would be one of our many strategies.
Jennifer: Maybe on Survivor you can flirt your way through. In the Race, you can flirt with locals and maybe try to get information and money from begging. But otherwise, looking the way we did, I don't know how we could have flirted with anyone.
Shana: We certainly weren't feeling sexy and hot, let me tell you.

TVGuide.com: Of the teams left in the race, who's your favorite?
Jennifer: TK and Rachel.
Shana: Ron and Christina because they're very nice and they've been so supportive and sweet. I had very bad bronchitis and Ron was giving me his special Chinese vitamins. He would have four left and he'd give me two of them. He was like a father figure to us. When I was soaking wet after the camel thing in Africa, I had no dry clothes in my bag and I was just sick. And Christina gave me her dry coat so I could take off my wet shirt. They were very kindhearted people.

TVGuide.com: Which airline had the best food and perks?
Jennifer: Aer Lingus pops into my head because we flew that a lot. But I'll be honest: I was so grateful for any food brought me.
Shana: We were just grateful to be on a plane because we knew we'd probably be getting food. There were times when we had to pay for the food. And if we did, then we just didn't eat, because we couldn't spend money on food. So we would literally be begging the stewardess for a cracker and some water.
Jennifer: It got to a point where I was looking at the food people were going to throw away and I was thinking about asking them if I could eat it.
Shana: If we ever got to a hotel or a waiting room or something that had sugar packets, we were putting them in our backpacks. And I think it took a while to kick that habit once we were done racing.

TVGuide.com: How much weight did you lose during the race?
Jennifer: We were there 14 days. I lost 12 pounds.
Shana: And I probably lost 10 pounds. I wasted away to nothing.

TVGuide.com: When you first arrived in Burkina Faso, why did you do the Teach It Detour instead of the Learn It one, which seemed easier, like you'd have more control over the outcome?
Jennifer: Shana's a really good teacher.
Shana: And we hadn't eaten or slept in days. So for us to retain information and learn something would have been rough. But I knew I could teach a kid.
Jennifer: The first word he knew was hamburger. It broke my heart when he could say hamburger.
Shana: I just wanted to give him a hamburger. Afterward we spent a lot of time hugging him and telling him how great he was. And he was so happy and excited to have learned these words.

TVGuide.com: Have you sent any money or anything back to the school?
Shana: We knew we were going to be in places that deeply affected us like that. So, ahead of time, I packed a bunch of jewelry, bracelets, candy and stuff. And Jen and I literally emptied out our bags after that Teach It detour.
Jennifer: I had a mango. It was the only thing that I had in my bag foodwise, and I gave them that.
Shana: And the looks on their faces...
Jennifer: I would maybe like to start a perfume that smells worldly called Salon d'Afrique and donate the proceeds to African education. This is not in the works or anything. That was just a thought.

TVGuide.com: Let's end on a high note. What was your favorite part?
Jennifer: It was in Africa: Educating that child really inspired me on such a spiritual level, it will be with me for the rest of my life. The joy and the genuineness.
Shana: I will never forget his face. Also, going through this experience, you're tested in every way and you do things that you think you could have never done. I mean, I hoisted furniture that weighed more than me up a seven-story building. The race helped us realize anything you decide to do and set your mind to do you can do it. We both came back with that attitude; it's helping propel us forward in our lives every day.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tvguide/342519_tvgif6.html

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #40 on: December 06, 2007, 10:05:22 PM »
The blonds certainly have different opinions of Ron & Christina than Marianna & Julia.
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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #41 on: December 08, 2007, 12:13:54 AM »
lots of good stuff here!!

“We’re Very Determined, Competitive People” An Interview with The Amazing Race's Shana & Jennifer
by Teeuwynn Woodruff -- 12/05/2007



Shana & Jennifer (right) seemed to bicker their way through the race. Is that really what happened? How do they view their relationship and why do they think they lost? Does Shana really hate asking for directions? Why didn’t Jennifer want to use the U-Turn? And what didn’t we see going on during the Lithuanian leg of the race?

RealityNewsOnline: Hi Shana & Jennifer! Thanks for talking to RealityNewsOnline!

Shana & Jen: Thanks for having us.

RNO: How do you two know each other?

Jen: We met through a mutual friend, five or six years ago.

RNO: Are you still friends after going on the race?

Shana & Jen: Oh, definitely!

Jen: Shana went to school with my husband, so we have a bond in that respect.

Shana: Yeah, her husband coincidentally – we met separately from that – but her husband is one of my oldest friends from first grade. It feels like we’ve known each other even longer!

RNO: What happened at the Air France ticket counter? Was the one agent just ornery? The teams seemed to get somewhat random information from her on whether a flight was open or closed!

Shana: They didn’t speak English, so they couldn’t understand you. What we did when we booked our flight was, we found a person standing in line who spoke French fluently. We had him go up and explain – he spoke English and French – and he explained it all for us. They didn’t show that, but that’s how we got our tickets. But the reason they probably seemed that way was because they couldn’t understand… anybody couldn’t understand anybody.

RNO: Shana, good work getting seats at the front of the airplane, but why didn’t you want the other teams to know what seat you were in?

Jen: That isn’t what happened! Shana, you can answer it, but I’m just clarifying that we did not want to get seats on the front of the plane. We just said that so that the other teams wouldn’t hear what we were really doing.

Shana: What we were really doing was trying to… You know, that airport, we had gotten there early in the morning and it didn’t open until, whatever time that was, 8:00 in the evening. We had all gone outside of the airport to different travel agencies to get the tickets. At that point, when we walked into that booth the airport had just opened. So, we thought since we already had these tickets we decided to find out if there was a different flight – an earlier flight – because you always get different information.

So, we walked in, that was our plan, but everyone is standing so close to everyone else and wants to know what everyone else is doing. So, we said, “let’s go see if we can get seats close to the front of the plane.” And then Hendekea burst in to see what we were doing. She was just being nosy and wanted to know what we were doing. We didn’t want her to know, so we asked her to leave and let us have more space.

We always let everyone have their space. We never jumped in front of anyone’s computer when they were on it, never sat in front of the ticketing person and stole the information. I mean, we just always stood back and gave people their space. We were frustrated that she wasn’t showing us the same respect because we were trying to find a different flight. And we actually did! We found a different flight that left an hour – that got us in at least an hour before everybody else. We bought those tickets. This wasn’t shown, but we bought those tickets and, the problem was, the connecting flight. We landed at the airport and we had about 20 minutes to get to the flight. We ran and ran and we got there just as the gate was closing and we couldn’t make that flight. It would have brought us in an hour ahead of everyone else.

Jen: We almost made the flight.

RNO: So, if that had happened, you wouldn’t have been talking to me today!

Shana: (sigh) No.

RNO: You two seemed to have some disagreements and somewhat of a breakdown in your team dynamics in the last couple of legs. Did this contribute to your loss?

Jen: No. We disagreed since the beginning of the race, but they only showed us disagreeing the last couple of legs. Shana and I are very opinionated, we’re very determined, competitive people, and that’s what got us through as far as we got through. We both push each other through, and you can’t agree on everything when you’re as opinionated as we are. We have to express ourselves in that manner because we’re going through such a stressful situation. So, it seems like we’re arguing a lot, but that’s just what they showed. We really didn’t. We were also very encouraging of each other.

Shana: It’s just the way we were talking when we were in a high-stress situation. It comes out panicky and yelling and stressed because you’re so stressed out that you’re not really talking calmly. We were, I think what Jen is saying is that we were the same from the beginning as we were at the end. They just showed it more at the end.

But every single team, with the exception of TK & Rachel – they didn’t argue much, but every single other team was arguing at least as much as us, if not more. You could see Nate & Jen, you could see the Dad and daughter [Ronald & Christina]…

Jen: Hende & Azaria

Shana: Hende & Azaria and Lorena & Jason – the sisters [Marianna & Julia] argued a lot, but they didn’t show it. Everyone did. Every single team argued because it’s just stressful.

Jen: Exactly.

Shana: It wasn’t that we argued any more or less than everybody else.

RNO: So, one thing we saw, which looked very dramatic was when you backed into the path of the bus. Did that bus really almost hit you when you accidentally backed into its path?

Shana: Yes. It sure, sure almost did! But, you know, Jen was trying to drive and she backed out and the oncoming bus… and then the car stalled in the middle of the road. The bus was plummeting towards us. She couldn’t get the car started. She was trying and, at the last minute, she got it to bump forward a little bit. But the bus was coming directly at me in the back seat because I was right behind her. It literally came up to the car. It came to a screeching halt just at the door. I thought my legs were going to be destroyed. I just saw everything flash before my eyes.

RNO: The previous leg, you decided to use the U-Turn on Lorena & Jason. What made you decide to do that?

Shana: Our motives behind that were, um, you know Jason & Lorena were the only team to start off behind us when we started that leg and they were behind us by an hour and 20 minutes or so. When we made it through the dancing Detour and we were walking towards the U-Turn clue I saw, off in the distance, what I thought was Jason & Lorena walking towards the clue box. It was a little bit of a distance, but I saw two people and I thought, “who else could it possibly be? Everyone else is ahead of us.” We had seen everyone else go ahead of us. We knew everyone else was ahead of us. What I now realize is that it was TK & Rachel because they had gone to the dance thing [Detour] and then decided not to do it, so they went back to the clue box. What I saw was them, but I thought it was Jason & Lorena. I thought, “that’s Jason & Lorena and they’re already here. They can definitely catch up to us. Someone will be eliminated, whether it’s them or us. So, we decided to use the U-Turn on Jason & Lorena. And it wasn’t until after we did do that, that we realized that TK & Rachel were behind us. I mean, we did not see them at all until after we [used the U-Turn].

RNO: Jen, you seemed upset about using the U-Turn. The U-Turn is a tool of the game. Do you feel it shouldn’t be used?

Jen: No. That’s not why I was upset. I was upset because, strategically, it was too soon in the game to use the U-Turn and there were three taxis in the parking lot. So, I was going on the assumption that there were at least two teams behind us, because we had a taxi. I just didn’t think we needed to use it. We could have saved it for later in the game when we really, really needed it. I did not think we needed it at all. Shana and I are really, really good at doing the Detours and Roadblocks. We could do them like there was no tomorrow, so my confidence level on us getting through a Detour/Roadblock was at its highest. I just did not see another team coming up behind us. At that point, I thought we were fine.

RNO: Shana, do you still stand by your decision to use the U-Turn?

Shana: Oh, 100%. You know, we’re both confident in our ability to do the Detours and the challenges and the Roadblocks, but what you can’t depend on are those outside factors like an animal behaving a certain way or your taxi cab getting a flat tire. You know, outside factors you can never count on. If one thing like that happens, if there’s only one team behind you, then you’re the last one. If something happens where they can… it would have been us or them.

The fluke thing was that TK & Rachel had switched challenges and got a little bit behind and then, even though they were behind us, it’s a perfect example of how they still passed us and got to the Roadblock before us. So, she passed us. She beat me entering that. I passed her. I went in after her and came out before her. So, again, we became ahead of them. That could have not happened. Then we would have been the last team if we hadn’t U-Turned [Lorena & Jason]. So, strategically, it made sense not to wait to use the U-Turn. If you’re not in the game, it doesn’t matter that you waited.

RNO: So, you tried to get a faster flight into Lithuania and you almost made it. Then you ended up with the other teams on the first flight in the parking lot. How long did it take you to get out of that parking lot?

Jen: Well, you know, the editing… We were so boggled by that! You know, when we got off of that plane, Azaria & Hendekea, Shana and I, and Jen & Nate were all on that first plane. The first plane let out and we were all running for the cars for about five minutes. We all got [the cars] at the same time. I was lucky because my car was closest to the exit. We pulled out first. Then Azaria & Hendekea were behind us, and then Jen & Nate. So, last night’s editing was so weird to me, because it said we were in fourth place.

Shana: I think that Hendekea & Azaria pulled out before us because they turned a certain way –


Jen: No, Hende & Azaria couldn’t go that way. We got lucky because we could only go one way out of the parking lot. They couldn’t go that other way. There was only one way that would get out. So, they were following me. Then, when we got there, Shana and I asked the guy at the median, do we make a left or a right to the A26 and he said to make a left. So, we were the only team, at that point, to make a left.

They took out an entire part. We were supposed to go to Trakai Castle. We got there and none of that was shown and the reason why was because when we got to Trakai Castle the clue said that there was a Fast Forward. No teams chose the Fast Forward and we didn’t choose the Fast Forward for an obvious reason – we were an hour and a half or two hours lost. We were the last team to get to the Trakai Castle. So, by no means were we going to take a 200 mile drive when we thought other teams had already taken it. We thought for sure another team had utilized it. And they didn’t.

Shana: And that was, literally, how long? It was a two and a half hour drive to Trakai. We got lost. We were so far behind after getting to the Fast Forward. We were crying in the car. We knew we were hours behind people.

Jen: Yeah. That left turn was not a big deal. I knew right away we were going the wrong way, so I turned around and went the other way. But a highway was closed. We printed out directions, previously, before getting on the plane, and one highway road was closed. So, the directions that we had were detoured to a new route. That was the confusion.

Shana: We actually got to the Roadblock two to two and a half hours behind Nick & Grandpa because of getting so lost. We thought the whole show was over at that point, but when we saw them there we thought, “Oh my God! We still have a chance!” I did that Roadblock in 10 to 15 minutes that took them two and a half hours to do. We left about 30 seconds ahead of them.

RNO: It looked like you did the Roadblock very fast.

Shana: Really fast, yeah.

RNO: So, you left the Roadblock at basically the same time as Nicolas & Donald?

Shana: About 30 seconds ahead of them. And then we asked someone for directions and we got the wrong directions so we got lost again for 15 minutes, probably. We then got a woman to help us find it. Unfortunately, that 15 minutes cost us the race because we were last by 15 minutes.

RNO: You were 15 minutes behind Nicolas & Donald getting to the Pit Stop?

Shana: Yes.

RNO: How did you do with that final “Count Down” Detour?

Shana: We didn’t do it as fast as… In hindsight, while we were watching the show last night, we said that we should have done the stilts. For some reason, that’s what we chose. That was very time-consuming.

Jen: I didn’t think it was… See, we’re off on this. I thought it was not that long.

Shana: It took forever! We had to do it over three times.

Jen: But that’s not that bad. It was just 700.

Shana: It was 717 and it took a lot of time. It did. It really took a lot of time. I remember it.

RNO: Were you with Nicolas & Donald at the same time?

Shana: No, they did the stilts.

Jen: They started counting, though.

Shana: And then they switched.

Jen: They switched.

Shana: I can’t be positive about that. I’d have to watch it again.

[Editor’s Note: Nicolas & Donald did complete the “Count Down” Roadblock.]

RNO: Shana, why didn’t you want to ask directions? Was that actually true?

Shana: The reality was we did ask directions a lot. We asked, I don’t know, probably 25 people or so [over] the long hours of driving we did. The problem is that each time you ask somebody… for technical reasons, stopping and asking people takes a lot longer than you think, production-wise.

Jen: But, see, I have to disagree because if you stop and ask someone, yes it may take longer, but you know the direction you’re going in.

Shana: But, Jen, we stopped and asked every five minutes!

Jen: But if you don’t get the right answer you have to keep asking.

Shana: But what I’m saying is it made it look like I didn’t want to stop at all. We just stopped and we stopped and we stopped. I just didn’t want –

Jen: It just looked like you didn’t want to stop there.

Shana: But we did stop a bunch of times. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to ask someone in the first place. We had stopped at a liquor store. We had stopped people on the street, we stopped a bunch of times. So, what I’m saying is, we keep getting directions. Just go with your directions instead of keeping stopping. But Jen would need to keep being sure every certain amount of time every ten feet that we were driving.

Jen: But we did have to stop every five minutes to make sure – and so did Hendekea & Azaria. They said, “we had to stop every five minutes to make sure we were going the right way.”

Shana: The question was “why didn’t I want to ask” and I’m answering that question. I did want to ask. We asked a lot of times. I just didn’t want to ask every five minutes.

RNO: You weren’t against asking directions on principle. You just didn’t want to ask as often.

Shana: It wasn’t principle, it was just timing. I didn’t want to ask directions every five minutes. Because we did ask a lot.

RNO: What was going on with the fight you were having at the “Count Down” Detour?

Shana: Just, we were very stressed out and we had to count all these things. We did not have a good system or strategy going into it. That was really hard.

Jen: We actually did. Shana was going to count half and I was going to count the other half, and we were going to unite in the middle and add the two together. But you weren’t allowed to be more than 20 feet away from each other. So, we couldn’t do that.

Shana: Then we were so panicky at that moment ‘cause we knew it was about over, that I don’t think we were listening to each other properly. So, that was my frustration there.

RNO: What was your favorite moment on the race?

Shana: I think I speak for both of us when I say the “Teach It” [Detour] in Africa was our most favorite moment because we, you know, we got to go in to this little classroom of kids that were so excited and eager to learn, and pick one person to teach. And they all wanted to teach and it was so touching to pick one person and we picked that kid and he couldn’t have been more excited about it. He learned so quickly and we hugged him and we were teaching him words like “hamburger” and, you know, it was just overwhelming because we figured he probably hadn’t even had a hamburger – didn’t know what a hamburger was.

So, we just had a really touching moment there. Right when we got to the mat [at the Pit Stop] we were just surrounded by all these African children and we were just overwhelmed. We were crying and we opened up our backpacks and gave out a bunch of jewelry – anything we had in our bags – our bracelets, our jewelry, makeup, candy, food, soda. Anything we could get our hands on we were giving out to a bunch of these kids. And the looks on their faces! They had never been so happy to see us and to get this… Well, I just think both of us will never forget that moment.

RNO: Did you have a least favorite moment (besides being eliminated)?

Jen: No. I just think the race takes a toll on you when you’re not eating and you’re not sleeping. You’re not feeling that great about yourself. You’re not showering and your situations are uncomfortable. That’s all. Otherwise, it was part of the race and it was the best experience and I feel so blessed to have been able to do it.

RNO: Is there anything you would do differently on the race?

Jen: Yes, I wish that we would have taken the Fast Forward.

Shana: Yeah, I mean we did make the right decision according to how we were supposed to make it, but knowing what we know now, we should have done that. Also, I think, if I had one thing to do differently, just based on making decisions according to what you know at the time, we should have done the stilts – not the “Count Down.” I think that would have made a difference.

RNO: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about the race?

Shana: I think we probably both just want everyone to know how amazing the actual experience was and how much it gave us and changed us forever as people.

RNO: How did it change you as people?

Jen: Well, for myself, my priorities have changed a lot. Handbags and clothes, I’m really into fashion – I sew my own clothes – but it just doesn’t mean that much to me anymore. My priorities have really changed. My family means so much to me and the experiences that I went through were life-changing in that respect. I just really appreciate everything that I have now and I don’t need anything else. Simplicity is what that is for me.

Shana: It changed me because it gave me the power, it gave me the knowledge of what I can do when I set my mind to it. What I’m capable of doing and handling. I was in these extreme places and, you know, extreme hunger and exhaustion and these physical challenges – lifting things that weighed one to two times my own weight. Things that you thought would be physically impossible and just seeing that, when you set your mind to it, you can get through anything and you can accomplish anything. You come back with that information and it’s just a powerful thing. My life’s been on fast forward ever since I got back just because I know there’s no time to waste and whatever it is I want to do, I can do it. I’ve actually been living that way. It’s just a powerful thing to know about yourself.

RNO: Thank you for talking to RealityNewsOnline today!

Shana & Jen: Thank you!

Link: http://www.realitynewsonline.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?mode=4&article=article15146.art&page=1

nikita

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #42 on: December 08, 2007, 05:30:33 AM »
I'm glad they are gone.  :cmas26

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #43 on: December 08, 2007, 12:22:29 PM »
RFF's Golden Rule:
Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #44 on: June 03, 2008, 09:26:40 AM »
Shana is working with Dogs in Danger :

Hollywood, CA (PRWEB) June 3, 2008 -- Barking up a storm, reality television's elite and their pooches will be hobnobbing at Michael Scott's stunning Beverly Park estate in support of Reality Cares' 'The Dogs Next Door' event benefiting DogsInDanger.com on Saturday, June 14th. Dogs In Danger is an animal welfare organization, which was recently featured on 'Oprah!' for their work in raising awareness of the number of dogs being killed in shelters and helping to save their lives through pet adoption. 'The Dogs Next Door' is an exclusive Hollywood celebrity event, hosted by Dogs In Danger spokesperson Shana Wall of "The Amazing Race." Actor Jai Rodriguez, star of Animal Planet's "Groomer Has It," will emcee a Doggy Fashion Show featuring some of the dogs saved from euthanasia by DogsInDanger.


Shana Wall, Host of Reality Cares' "The Dogs Next Door" Event on June 14th
"Every four seconds a dog is needlessly euthanized in our country alone, simply due to lack of space in our shelters. When I learned about the mission of Dogs in Danger I jumped at the opportunity to be their national spokesperson," states Shana Wall. "My hope is that our fundraiser brings awareness to this issue so that we can continue to save these dogs from their otherwise tragic fates."

Current confirmed celebrities to attend are: Ryan Seacrest, Lisa Rinna & Harry Hamlin, Illeana Douglas, Kelly Rutherford, Linda Blair, Maria Menounos, Ellen K, James Madio, Ariel Winters, Brittney Gastineau, Karina Smirnoff, Rebecca Cardon, Tian Kitchen, Mike O'Hearn and Lisa Foxx.

'The Dogs Next Door' is a family-friendly event, open to the public with a limited number of tickets available for purchase. Attendees are encouraged to bring their bathing suits and splash around in the pool or take a rejuvenating dip in the mineral bath. Fun activities for kids include an arcade game room, bowling alley, pool table and so much more. Guests of the private estate will delight in the breathtaking views and enjoy having their fortune read while sipping on cocktails and rocking out to music by DJ Dimitri Hamlin.

"Reality Cares is proud to be supporting Shana Wall in her efforts to raise money and awareness for Dogs in Danger," states Todd Michael Krim, founder of Reality Cares. "Dogs in Danger is very worthy organization and one we couldn't be happier to align with."

So, mark your calendars for Saturday, June 14th! Come out and have some fun from 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm all in the name of charity. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.dogsindanger.com/LAinviteForm.html.


http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/6/prweb994184.htm
RFF's Golden Rule:
Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.


Offline puddin

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Re: Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12
« Reply #45 on: June 16, 2008, 08:49:33 PM »
Shana & crew are doing a great thing, gotta love those animal lovers  :hearts: