live-blogging the amazing race premiere

hah! it's the season 10 premiere of the amazing race, my all-time favorite reality show on earth.

it's on for about 90 minutes today and the 12 teams are in seattle, en route to beijing china. among the 12 teams, some have created an impression on me.

on top of my head: the coal-miner and his wife (very middle america); the asian guys, the beauty queens (miss california and miss new york); the black single moms; the muslim guys; the indian couple; the father and daughter team (daughter's a lesbian); the gay couple; the cheereleaders..and i am missing 3 pairs! oh, the disabled girl and her boyfriend; the engaged couple and one more.

they are now in forbidden city and so far, i've been getting really hilarious snippets from the contestants (i.e. the beauty queens/or the cheerleaders saying 'do the muslims worship buddha?' and the coal-miner and his wife asking the driver to 'go fast! quack! quack!' )

wow. that was a shocker. there were twists and turns and surprises! and one of them is the early elimination half an hour after the show. it's the muslim brothers. awww. the asian guys (they dropped harvard, uc berkley and nyu during their introduction; quite a way to say, we've got brains y'all).

and yeah, the 'one more' i forgot earlier -- the hollywood models who were former drug addicts who met during recovery. how could i miss them? hah!

holy crap! the addicts turned models arrive at the great wall first. they get $20 k for that? damn. and the indian couple arrives last. they're eliminated. i like the way they made this first pit stop. the contestants need to climb the great wall of china in order to step on phil's mat. i'm impressed (very, very impressed) that the girl with the prosthetic leg was able to make it and i'm amazed that the coal-miner's wife and the larger single black mom from birmingham made it too. this is what makes this show very, very good.