DAY 29

(May 22)
Episode 5

I drew Jera this morning; the harvest, the culmination of everything that has gone before, the reward.  Though it seems to bode well, I have learned that these daily rune draws cannot always be taken to pertain to the challenges, they could refer to any aspect of my life.

It has been a long day, it is now 2320 at night and it is still light out.  Our challenge today was to drive to four different locations and through a series of different challenges collect as many tree-shaped air fresheners as possible…Norwegians call them “wunder baums”.  I won’t go into what all four tasks were here, because it will be on the show, but in the end we lost by two wunder baums.  Actually, my team did very well and found three more wunder baums than the other team…but, they had an advantage of 5 wunder baums to start out with from the previous competition…so we lost, by 2, frustrating.

So, today is Tuesday.  On Thursday I will face my second individual challenge, and I’m fine with that.  I have decided that I am confident in my mind and my body, I am also confident I will do my best.  So, if I were to lose an individual competition then it means I have been bested, and I have no business being here any longer.

Tonight we had dinner with the Skog’s, they are such a wonderful family.  Tore Andre found my episode of Onkel America that I appeared in on the TV and we all watched it together, I had never been able to see it before so that was fun.  It was good to see my people on the TV for a moment.

Then, they had a kubb game so we went outside and played.  Norwegians vs the Americans.  Since I play at home and even make sets to sell I was able to give my team some good advice…the Americans won!  Vebjørn shared some more beer and aquavit with us.  They are really great people, I love them.  Vebjørn and Marete told us that in the morning we all needed to be together so they could talk to us for a bit.  We figured there was certain information they may be imparting so we all knew we had to pay good attention.

Tomorrow in the evening at 1900 Vebjørn has arranged for the village to throw us an off-camera party at the village center!  We will taste homemade beer and local food, it is a wonderful thing they are doing for us and we are very excited about it.  Then, on Thursday, either Todd, Jessica, Barbara or myself will be eliminated.  I am not planning on going home yet, there is too much I have not yet done.  I will trust in myself, and use the gaze of the ancestors and Gods upon me to propel me to victory.

Many Gods have made their presense known to me on this journey; Freya, Thor, Tyr, Freyr, Njord, and Odin too.  I am a blessed man.  I know my family is rooting for me hard, Brenda is bending over backwards to keep things together on the farm.  The dogs…..?  I wonder what they think?

I’m going to turn in now with a belly full of salmon, salad, rice, and vegetables.  Tomorrow we have interviews and reality to film but we are supposed to be done by 1500…I may jump in the fjord.