When we woke up, I learned that both Lil Jon and Mac Miller were in our hotel before they both perform for a huge crown of Russ scheduled for later tonight. Richard lifted weights with Lil Jon and Derrick and a few others saw Mac Miller at the bar last night.

Derrick seemed resigned to being the one headed home, in trying to decide between trying to study or “spending one last great night with friends” he stayed at the bar late into the night.

After breakfast we headed to a school about 10 minutes away and started setting up. The competition would be a verbal test. After Fridtjof asks a question, the first to call out their name would be given a chance to respond. If correct, they would be given 2 points, if incorrect, the rest of the group would be given a multiple choices, and if correct, they’d get 1 point. After you accumulate 5 points, you “graduate”, and the last person without 5 points has to go home.

Derrick grabbed the first two points, and then Kate came on strong with two correct answers. After someone missed one, Kate got the multiple choice correct to quickly put her at 5, and make her safe from elimination.

Derrick and Johnny also both made it, leaving Heidi and Jeff. Down 3-1, Heidi got one right, tying the score at 3. Next right answer kept someone safe, and would see someone go home.

“What was the name/theme of the Russbuss?”

“JEFF!”

“…Thadland!”

And that’s how Heidi’s adventure on Alt For Norge came to an abrupt end. Then moment hit hard, as for nearly 2 weeks, we’ve done everything together as a group and become like a family. At this point, we realized that it was a real competition with real outcomes. There was nothing fake or produced here… if Heidi gets the last question, Ballard is still missing a resident and Jeff is sent packing. Fate has a fickle hand.

We knew coming in that luck would play a big role… it’s just really tough to see someone go home after being a superstar artist on an art based challenge. With all this said, credit to the production team for making this a fair competition. Everyone had equal study time with their study materials. While Heidi was gone at her family homestead, no other members of the red team had access to any study materials.

If I’m the producers of the show, I don’t want Heidi out first. She’s a cute girl who I anticipate would make for good TV, but the cards fall how they do, and unfortunately she’s on her way home.

We film some reaction interviews, and then head out to a pier where we film the post results group pow wow. After his wild week, a lot of us though Jeff would end up with the Norwegian Spirit Award, but it ends up going to Kate which makes a lot of sense. It means next week we’ll have even 3 guy 2 girl teams, and also ensures that Kate will be on the show until at least Syttende Mai which makes me really happy for her!

We fly back to Oslo, but we’re taken to a different hotel in the Grünerløkka neighborhood and told that tomorrow is an off day (much needed). We take a walk through the neighborhood for dinner, and then it’s back to the hotel. As I had planned, I break out the Old Ballard Liquor Company aquavit they’d given me, and make Norwegian Blonde Cocktails for everyone. We then go out to explore the Oslo scene (or as much of it as we can, we’re told we can’t leave a certain boxed area and all given maps.) I end up at a random after party with 3 locals on the top floor of an Oslo apartment overlooking the city. It was a fun but very very random night. Back to the hotel around 3:15 where I almost (literally) run into Kelsey and a friend, and then it’s off to bed.