The Amazing Race > The Racers
TAR 19: Ernie Halvorsen & Cindy Chiang (Engaged)
georgiapeach:
On the Kelly Show:
http://www.youtube.com/v/0DRbaWuNzX4?version=3&hl
georgiapeach:
The Amazing Race
Amazing Race Winners Ernie & Cindy: We Feel Elated and Relieved
By Dahvi Shira
Monday December 12, 2011 06:00 PM EST
Ernie Halvorsen & Cindy Chiang
Engaged duo Ernie Halvorsen and Cindy Chiang covered four continents, 20 cities and nearly 40,000 miles in their quest to win the latest season of The Amazing Race.
Putting their wedding plans aside to complete the competition, project manager Halvorsen, 29 and his brand manager fiancée Cindy Chiang, 30, walked away with $1 million, a group of new friends and an even stronger bond.
PEOPLE caught up with the happy couple, who dished about their win and what's next for them.
How are you feeling right now? What's going through your mind?
Ernie: We just feel elated and relieved. We're just looking forward. We're very optimistic and hopeful for what we can do now that we've won. ... If we could do the whole thing over again without being paid, of course we'd do it.
Cindy: We're excited to have shared this moment with our family and our friends. The experience was invaluable. Just getting to see all these places – literally, there are so few people in the world who got to experience what we got to experience.
What were your lowest moments during the competition?
Ernie: One of the lowest points was definitely in Malawi when Andy and Tommy had beat us to the finish line. We were just so devastated. We thought we'd done everything in our power to beat everyone at the race. And it just never panned out for us. We didn't use our express pass. We didn't use U-turns.
Cindy: The wind was just out of our sails that day. I had, unfortunately, gotten hurt during the roadblock cask, and it was really difficult to run. I was trying to do my best and keep spirits high, but it was a tough day for us.
By the end of the competition, which couple were you closest to?
Cindy: We're definitely closest to Justin and Jennifer. We actually just asked Justin to be part of our wedding. We keep in touch with every single person from the cast. We were watching with them last night. There's a game to be played, but then there's time for fun and enjoyment.
What was your favorite place visited?
Cindy: I loved Taiwan because my parents grew up there. My brother was living there when we actually toured through the town. But I'd never seen it. It was just nice to experience where my parents grew up and where their families were for many years.
Ernie: Every country had good people and nice people who helped us along the way, but for me, I think the people in Copenhagen stood out more than the others. They were very fluent in English, which we were very thankful for.
What was your strangest or most difficult task?
Ernie: Cindy was probably very upset to do the bodybuilding challenge.
Cindy: I didn't want to expose myself like that. All the women were in the dressing room like, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe we're about to do this."
Ernie: On the flipside, I was more than excited to do this. I actually got into my outfit, and couldn't figure out what door I had to go into. I was running around for 15 minutes in my skivvies trying to figure out where I was supposed to put this tanning lotion.
And what are you planning to do with the $1 million prize? Will it go toward the wedding?
Cindy: Ernie and I are actually planning to use the winnings to start a business. We really want to be able to help provide education for children in developing markets. We were running around on the race, and we saw all these kids on the street who weren't in school. We came back and we researched and learned that education is not free everywhere. Even public education costs some kind of fee per year. Education is kind of the thing that alleviates poverty.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20553024,00.html
slayton:
The Amazing Race Winners Talk Cabbie Controversy and What They Plan to Do With All That Money
Mon., Dec. 12, 2011 2:40 PM PST by Drusilla Moorhouse
The Amazing Race winners Ernie Halvorsen and fiancée Cindy Chiang aren't resting on their laurels.
In addition to planning for their March wedding, the determined couple are establishing a charity—funded by their million-dollar prize—to provide education to impoverished children throughout the world.
Read on to hear what the first-place finishers told us today about their amazing race, Cindy's "negative" edit and that cab-driver controversy…
Many viewers of the Emmy magnet's 19th season were upset that frontrunners Andy and Tommy were booted after their competitors' taxi drivers worked together to get them to the finalist-determining pit stop.
"It just as easily could've been to the wrong place—people don't think about that," Cindy told us about their cabbie's confidence that he was driving them to the correct destination. "We put our life in that gentleman's hands," Ernie added. "In reality he could've taken us to the Panama Canal"—the snowboarders' disastrous detour—"too… Communication was pretty tough."
Criticized by many fans for her aggressive perfectionism, Cindy admits, "There's a lot of things I wish we had done differently…It's tough to read a lot of the blogs and the reviews because I don't intend to be a bad or negative person or whiny in any way. I knew they cast us because I was so type A and I knew [the editors] would portray it that way, [but] I wish I didn't give [them so much] ammo—you kind of leave it to the editors and the storyline that they want to create for you. The only I can do is learn from this experience and be a better person and be more conscious of the way I may sound to [others]."
Ernie and Cindy credit to their successful race to rigorous and "creative" preparation. In addition to language courses and physical training, they created their own challenge— scarily prescient of the teams' Legoland contest in Denmark. With the TV blasting in the background, the pair tested their teamwork in assembling a Lego toy truck: "We sat back to back and I had to build the truck based on what Cindy [who had the instructions] was trying to tell me. That was probably the most stressful training we did." Cindy agrees: "We really had to work on our communication skills—we're glad we yelled at each other before we went on the show!"
One thing the generous teammates didn't plan beforehand was their idea to establish a charitable foundation. "But when we were traveling around we saw there is such a huge need for education globally," said Cindy. "Here in the U.S. we often take for granted that public school is actually free." Ernie pointed out that many children around the world "actually want to go to school, but they just can't fund it." The couple plan to apply their "passion for doing things like the race… to provide tuition and subsidize education globally."
Ironically, the million-dollar winners have just fallen victim to the economic crisis. "My company just went bankrupt last week, so I'm unemployed at the moment," Ernie, now the default wedding planner, revealed. After their nuptials, he said, "Hopefully we can get back on our feet again and get this business started and helping others out."
slayton:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TV_THE_AMAZING_RACE
--- Quote ---But interviewed after the broadcast, the winners said their most unnerving moment was the basic task of getting a cab at Atlanta's airport.
"Nobody wanted to take us," Ernie said. "That was the most stressful thing as we saw the other teams departing."
Finally a driver volunteered, "and we give him all the rest of our money as a tip," said Cindy.
--- End quote ---
georgiapeach:
--- Quote from: slayton on December 13, 2011, 09:53:06 PM ---http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TV_THE_AMAZING_RACE
--- Quote ---But interviewed after the broadcast, the winners said their most unnerving moment was the basic task of getting a cab at Atlanta's airport.
"Nobody wanted to take us," Ernie said. "That was the most stressful thing as we saw the other teams departing."
Finally a driver volunteered, "and we give him all the rest of our money as a tip," said Cindy.
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
In ATlanta, each airport cab can wait in line a LONG time...usually 3-7 HOURS for a fare. So NO cab is going to want to take a 3 minute fare when they could get a fare to dpwntown or further. I think the key would have been to say we need you for all day!
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