The Amazing Race > The Racers

Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall - TAR12

<< < (9/10) > >>

TARAsia Fan:
The blonds certainly have different opinions of Ron & Christina than Marianna & Julia.

puddin:
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:
I'm glad they are gone.  :cmas26

georgiapeach:
IGN INTERVIEW

georgiapeach:
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

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page