We had fun talking to strangers

so, you want details?? You don't really have a choice :-P
This Amazing race started much before getting the first clue. At the Frankfurt Airport we ran into two other interns who said that we should make our packs as light as possible because that's what we will be carrying around during the race. Mary and I, being the competitive girls that we are, decided to put all of our important things into one bag.. to share... oh yeah! That means one bag for the both of us for three days... it also meant ONE PAIR OF CLOTHES for 3 days. Mary and I took advantage of our one-hour flight to study about JV with our flashcards.
Day One:
Our team consisted of Anna (JV staff), Metka (may-t-ka, Slovene intern), Mary and myself. Our first stop was making a Mosaic. Next, we made our way to the bus where we met a Czech guy named Jan (Yawn) who was extremely helpful and carefully explained all transportation routes as well as pointed us in the right direction for our nest stop in Old Town Square, Prague. Here we were given 8 pictures to help locate JV staff who greeted us with multiple choice, trivia questions about JV staff members and JV ministry. THANK GOODNESS FOR OUR NOTE CARDS!! After this stop our team was known for our intense running and helpful note cards.
After answering the questions it was off to find a pizza place to make our very own pizza. Again, we found some very helpful Czechs. The map of Czech that Mary brought from home was put to good use as well. We finally ended up at the hotel Krystal where we stayed the night and had a wonderful breakfast in the morning.
Day Two:
Our team left for the 'Czech Inn' for our first assignment. We were the first team to arrive (which was awesome since we were the third team to leave). At the checkpoint we were greeted with three bags of plastic cups and six 2-litter bottles of Kofola (kind of like coke.. but grosser). Our instructions were to pour a glass for random people on the street to drink and empty all of the bottles before going to our next checkpoint. Metka was super helpful. She talked to LOTS of people, in fact, we're convinced that she was our secret weapon :-) Anywho, we finally got rid of all the Kofola and were on our way to sing “When The Saints Go Marching In” with a jazz band on the Charles’ bridge.

Because the Jazz band didn’t finish setting up until 11 our team decided to complete the physical challenge part of our clue. Mary and I rented a paddle boat, met JV staff in Vltana (the river under the Charles’ Bridge), got a bucket from them, went under the bridge, and waited for our teammates to pour water over the bridge into our bucket. We displayed some mad skills. Mary was balancing on the boat while I tried to keep the boat in on place and Anna and Metka were enjoying pouring water on us from above- that’s what we call teamwork… and free entertainment for the Czechs.

We finished up in record time, sang with the band and then were off to Old Town Square with a picture of our next destination. We located the silk shop, found the what we needed and were off to the train station.. in first place!!

Unfortunately, our train was delayed and 3 teams caught up with us then :-(

We were given, yet another picture. After looking in an ossuary and finding the correct skull that matched our clue (a picture of a skull) we ran helter-skelter to the train… but we read the schedule wrong and had a whole half hour to rest and catch our breath, as well as get a bite to eat. Finally, the train came and we were on our way to Ostrava to inhale nasty sausages as fast as we could. Everyone was given three sausages and two pieces of bread.. Anna and I ate four sausages each to get rid of our team’s food. Finally, we received our next clue.

To our dismay, our clue was blank accompanied with a CD. Finding a computer that will play a CD was an interesting task. the CD played the song “Desperado” and our team thought maybe we’d have to karaoke in a bar or something (don’t tell our parents :-P) It turns out that there’s a bar named Desperado and once we found it we made our very own Mojitos (virgin, of course). This was our last checkpoint until we checked into our hostel.

Day 3
We left early in the morning to find a high tower to see our next checkpoint. We actually raced neck and neck with another team during this stretch. We made it to the tower and spotted our next destination. Mary and I ran down to get our other team members and didn’t stop until we got our next clue.

Our clue sent us to a Mining Museum. The transportation was very difficult but once again, Metka found just the right person to ask for help. With a ton of luck and some helpful Czechs, we actually passed the other teams while on the bus. I do remember the strange looks we girls got when Mary shouted “DUCK!” and in unison we all hit the floor of the bus, as not to be seen by the other teams.

At the Museum we completed 3 tasks: A mining rescue training course, Archery (I got 2 points for the team and Mary got the other one!! woohoo!!) and finally a ropes course where both Anna and Mary showed their bravery and jumped off a 40ft pole (they were harnessed in- don’t worry)

After that we were instructed to find a well in Poland. So, we left for Poland and stayed in Poland for maybe 10 min… the border patrol wasn’t so happy with us. After that we stopped off at a farm and then instead of waiting for a train we ended up having enough money to pay for a taxi for our last two stops :-) That’s what you get when your team never spends money on food!!

At this point we were following one team to Malenovice, the training center, and then raced to find the Staff member in the camp shirt. We came in a very close second place. It was another 10 min before another team showed up- we were proud of us :-)

and now we’re in training and doing debrief stuff…

this was more than a mouthful. Mary will be updating soon about the things we learned as a team and such.. so be watching for that.. or maybe wait for a while so you don’t feel so over loaded.

-lindy for the MaryLindy team