'Amazing Race': 15 Cross-Cultural Exchanges

15. Kevin plants potatoes, Babushka-style
Kevin impressed some Russian farmer women during the potato-planting challenge. One babushka in particular took a real shine to him. ''Davai! Davai!'' she screamed. Come on, come on! She was so impressed by Kevin's natural farming prowess that when he was done, she exclaimed, ''I love you!'' (''I think I fell in love with her a little bit,'' Kevin later admitted.) A first-generation Asian American YouTube sensation bonding with an elderly small-town Russian woman over their shared love of agriculture: Hooray for globalization!

14. Kat eats a sheep
A vegetarian who hasn't eaten meat for 22 years, Kat was understandably nonplussed when a grinning Norwegian chef set a still-bleeding sheep's head on her plate. But there was a Fast Forward challenge on the line. And Kat knows all too well the oldest lesson in the International Diplomacy handbook: ''When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and when in Norway, eat the Nordic Sheep's Head.'' As Kat devoured the freakish delicacy, I could've sworn I saw the decapitated little lamb wink at her, as if to say, ''Let Norway and America be friends forever!''

13. Teams bring TV to the citizens of Ghana
Besides political stability and a vibrant economy, the number one ingredient in becoming a healthy and prosperous nation is television. Contestants provided an incalculable cultural benefit to a few lucky citizens of Ghana by installing a TV antenna above their homes. (Eagle-eyed Race viewers noticed that every television was playing the same thing, some sort of group-dancing show. Hey, it can't be worse than Two and a Half Men, right?)

12. Nick finally finds his special purpose in life?on the far side of the world
Morose, petulant, ?clown-haunted? Nick was, in many ways, a uniquely terrible Race player. But Nick was really, really good at one thing: Gorodki, the Russian sport which involves throwing a baseball bat at a pile of bowling pins, or something. One of the benefits of living in a globalized world is that citizens of one country can emigrate to the country that will better serve their long-term happiness. So, from all of us here in America, here's a message for Nick: Go back to Russia!

11. Brook leads an impromptu dance lesson
They say that the language of dance is universal. So when Brook got up onstage in an upscale Hong Kong restaurant and blew the roof off the joint with some club-worth moves, she wasn't just seeking the crowd's attention: she was communicating with them.

10. Chad and Stephanie get engaged in Oman
Dating for eight months, Chad and Stephanie had their fair share of squabbles during the Race. But their journey actually seemed to change them. Stephanie learned to be more forceful. Chad learned to let Stephanie do everything. As the sun dawned over the Sultanate of Oman, Chad proposed to Stephanie. Could this indicate a new era of romance-tourism in the Middle East?

9. Mallory accidentally learns about Marxism
One of the best competitions this season was a Cinema-based challenged in Russia. Teams had to dig through a massive pile of film, searching for a strip that matched the film playing onscreen. The film in question was October, Sergei Eisenstein's Marxist classic. So, while All-American beauty queen Mallory dug through the film piles, she was literally swimming through socialism. (After long hours of searching, she finally found the correct strip, and the look on her face bore a striking resemblance to a famous close-up from Eisenstein's Potemkin. True fact!)

8. The Macro-Economics of Cheap Sunglasses
In the second episode of the season, Race viewers received a helpful lesson in the vagaries of supply and demand when teams had to sell cheap sunglasses to Ghana locals. Jill played the role of benevolent capitalist: ''Money is tight here! I don't want to sell them bad sunglasses!'' Boyfriend Thomas, meanwhile, played the part of Cutthroat International Businessman: ''I hope you're not worrying about people's feelings.''

7. Quick, find Africa on a map!
Americans are just plain bad at finding other countries on a map. (It's not our fault. We live in a part of the world that is blessed with a sensible layout: Canada is above us, Mexico is below us, and every other direction leads to the ocean.) It was a true gesture of kindness for some Ghana schoolchildren to teach our beloved Racers the finer points of African geography. In return, contestants helped to refurbish the school. Everyone's a winner!

6. Claire destroys an evil watermelon with her face
Just a silly accident, you say? Wake up, people! That watermelon was totally plotting to stage a coup and take over the British government! Fortunately, noble Claire pulled a sneak attack and bravely annihilated the pernicious fruit with her face.

5. Nick and Vicki experience an epiphany in St. Petersburg
Give this to the Tattooed Wonders: They got along really well with the locals. Vicki always said ''please'' and ''thank you.'' Nick possesses a unique ability to treat everyone like a drinking buddy. One of the stealth pleasures of The Amazing Race is seeing how people who don't usually travel react to other countries, and there were few moments this season that were more moving than Nick and Vicki's first impressions of stately St. Petersburg.
Nick: ''I like how they keep all their buildings instead of blowing them up.''
Vicki: ''Yeah. Like, in Vegas, they blow up everything.''

4. The A Cappella boy serenade Samson the taxi driver
Princeton students Connor and Jonathan were lucky enough to snag one of the world's greatest taxi drivers, a Ghanaian named Samson. ''We love you, Samson!'' they sang, in perfect a cappella harmony. ''I love you, too!'' Samson proclaimed. Rhetorical Question: Since other countries seem to enjoy adorable singing moppets as much as we do, should President Obama bring the cast of Glee with him next time he embarks on a diplomatic tour of the Middle East?

3. Teams bring water to Oman
Water! Ain't it grand? It sustains life. It keeps you clean. It mixes well with sugar and food coloring. Some countries have more water than others. The Race contestants learned a valuable lesson about water in mostly-rainless Oman, when a Detour showed them every process of water delivery: Pumping it from a well, driving a water truck, and finally, delivering it to the customer.

2. The Taekwondo Division
At Camp Casey in South Korea, soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division showed off their cool taekwondo moves. It is, of course, the mark of a healthy armed forces community when a country trains its solders foreign attack methods. Which raises the question: Does the US Army have an official ninja division yet? Because that would be awesome.

1. The Kiss Count
Brook and Claire have cheek-kissed just about everyone in the world: a hermit fisherman in Norway, a tractor-driver in England, a cabbie in South Korea, and so many more. (The official Kiss Count currently stands at 9.) As we all know, the key to international diplomacy is soft power, and what could be a more sly method of ingratiating ourselves than sending our best, brightest, and blondest on a global smooch tour? In the penultimate episode, Claire offered her services for solving the whole North Korea thing. Hey, it's worth a shot, right?

Don't forget to watch Sunday's big season finale. Check back afterwards for full Race coverage!