Episode 01

[Mia Galeotalanza]

Hello, I'm Mia Galeotalanza from Stranded in Costa Rica!

You'll be seeing a lot of me here, but you'll also see some of the other hosts, Jeff, Brenda, Carl, Penny, Kim, and Holly around as well! My main focus here will be on the Tamanaco Tribe, so talk to me! Most of us are all-stars of the series who have been through it all, so if you have any questions about how the game is played, feel free to PM us and we'll do our best to answer - that's why we are here. Other than that, our duties will basically be to interview you in your confessional here, trying to get into your head and get some insight as to why you may be making certain moves. We will also be handling challenges, tribal council, and tribal council questioning.

Each round, we'll start by asking some introductory questions, and I just want to ask that you answer in complete statements. Oftentimes, we'll turn the seasons into fanfics using these stories, and we will be actively blogging on each episode, and it's easier to do so if we have real quotes and complete thoughts as opposed to simple yes or no answers. We hope you keep up with your confessionals daily during the week as a way to vent and discuss the events of that day. Just try your best to give us insight into what you're thinking or planning as the game progresses, and right now, as we're about to embark. You'll appreciate being able to go back after the show and really see where your head was at certain points in the game, and so will your fellow cast mates!

So here we go......

How confident are you going into this game that you will win?

What are your opinions of your fellow tribemates?

What is your strategy and approach to the game?

How do you feel the rep of Diane fits you? Will you adjust your game to fit the rep, or just play as you would regardless?

What are your thoughts on the upcoming "leader" vote? Is this position something you find yourself interested in, or is leadership not for you? What do you make of who will eventually become leader?

[Diane]

How confident are you going into this game that you will win? I don't want to shoot myself in the foot early on by getting cocky haha. I think it's definitely too early to tell who's going to win, but I hope to do my best! My plan is to early on get into a solid alliance that will take me at least to the merge and maybe through that to the final three!

What are your opinions of your fellow tribemates? I like the majority of my tribemates. Unfortunately I wish Clarence had been here to participate in the first event. I think it's only necessary to give him the benefit of the doubt though. But even so, not being here definitely put an early target on his back. As for some of the other tribemates, I really like Mama Kim and Big Tom. As we are the 3 elders of our tribe, I knew I wanted to reach out to them immediately for a final 3 alliance. I think so far we've established that and I'm looking forward to playing with them!

What is your strategy and approach to the game? My strategy is to play nobly. I want to make friends and play the game with them. I am here to win of course, but I find that playing the game can be just as fun. And I want to play this game with people I like, not people who are annoying. So my strategy is to get rid of the annoying people first. I don't want to have to betray any of my friends either. I would much rather take my friends to the final three and lose to them than to betray them in the game in order to keep a Goat in that I know I can beat for sure. There's no honor or integrity in playing that way!

How do you feel the rep of Diane fits you? Will you adjust your game to fit the rep, or just play as you would regardless? I think Diane is just my avatar. I want to play this game as me and how I would play it rather than using Diane's strategy from the show. I'll use Diane's face but the game is all me haha.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming "leader" vote? Is this position something you find yourself interested in, or is leadership not for you? What do you make of who will eventually become leader? I almost stepped up to be leader at first when I saw that nobody really was willing. Luckily Kim J stepped up and took the role. I am a little disappointed now since she has immunity until the merge because that would have been nice to have. But I'm glad that I ended up where I am. I didn't step up because I don't believe I'm that great of a leader. However, I know that I'm an excellent number 2! I can be a trustworthy person that Mama Kim can rely on as a good backup! She can worry about making the big decisions and send me off to do whatever busy work needs to be done between the tribemates. She has no need to worry about me stabbing her in the back. I'm willing to take her to the final 3! Mama Kim should do great in the role of Cacique!

[Jeff Probst]

Hey Diane, just catching up with you. How are you feeling after the first night of the game? Any new strategies after getting through the first day, anything you've learned?

[Diane]

Jeff, I'm feeling pretty confidant right now. The first thing I wanted to do was to lobby for a good strong alliance. Mama Kim was my first go to, and luckily she ended up being our Cacique, so that definitely helps! :)
The two of us have already signed on for a final 2 alliance and taking each other to the end, so hopefully that will pay off. I trust her completely and don't believe she'll play me. And I also think that she's a smart player who I can work with. I have no intention of stabbing her in the back or using her to my advantage, and I trust that she feels the same. I think I'm going to be her go-to for advice if she runs into trouble and I'm all for lending a hand.
As far as what I've learned I think that just getting accustomed to the boards has been the bulk of the night, as well as sticking my feelers out and weighing the tribe. There are a few people I'm weary of, and right now the biggest one is Frank. I honestly think he'll be troublesome in the case that we end up at Tribal first. So I'm already thinking ahead and following my strategy. If we have to go to Tribal then I'm gonna do my hardest to get Frank out as early as possible.

[Jeff Probst]

So Frank is your target? Have the other players been receptive to that? How do you feel you are getting along with them?

[Diane]

I think I'm getting along with the rest of the tribe for the most part. I could just be getting early paranoia, and Frank could actually be an ok guy. However, I've had a relatively good success rate when it comes to my judgment of people in the past. I think I can gauge how people are pretty quickly. I'm not saying that it's a good thing to make snap judgments, but I can somehow gather the gist of a person's character within that initial few moments.

I have let my alliance of three with Mama Kim and Big Tom in on my suspicions about Frank, I want to be honest and straightforward with both of them. Clarence is another member I'm really getting to know, and I think he could easily be part of a final four with us. I feel like if I can rope Lindsey in with us, then we will have the majority on our tribe, which is never a bad thing. Hopefully my tribemates that I'm not as fully aligned with don't catch on to my strategy and see me as an early target. I guess I may need to stop playing so aggressively at the moment and kind of go under the radar for a while.

[Brenda Lowe]

Does your opinion of Frank change after seeing his performance in the challenge? ( lol at all these questions being about Frank ) Opinions of anyone else change after the challenge?

Also, while I have you - you know you don't need to wait for questions from hosts to prompt you in here right? Just run your mouth off as you think of things, or some players like to do one quality chunky update per episode, it's up to you how you approach it. But the more you write, the more fun it'll be for reading back over later

[Diane]

Oh lol, no I didn't realize I could do that! Good to know then!!!

My opinion of Frank hasn't really changed. I still haven't seen anything socially that allows me to trust him, irregardless of his abilities in challenges. I think that you have to separate the social aspect from the skills of an individual. Just because he was great in this performance doesn't mean I am willing to suddenly trust him.

I can understand if Frank doesn't click with me, because you can't just be good friends with everyone. However, we are on the same tribe, and when your tribemates don't respond to your messages it leaves a feeling of unease or suspicion in your gut. I had been told by Big Tom that Linda was rallying for her own 3 person alliance with Frank and Kim P. At the time both Frank and Kim P had not been very responsive with their PMs to me, while Linda had hardly been online, so as I was aligned with Tom, I believed him.

Now that I've gotten to know Linda a bit more, I really like her and we do click a lot more than I thought we would. Now, that doesn't mean that she isn't in an alliance already, but it does mean she could be more likely to jump ship on her own alliance and join ours, which would be great. Heck! It would be great if our whole team could come together for now as one alliance! But that honestly would be a little too naive. At some point we're going to have to turn on each other, so creating early alliances pre-merge is essential.

My opinion of Tom has definitely changed, big time! Tom seemed to be very aware of the game at first, but he's quickly starting to annoy me. His performance last night was just horrible. He created a separate thread instead of staying on the one his tribe was on, and then without talking to his tribe he let Jeff know who was doing which part of the challenge. Yet, all that did was confuse us and mess up our group flow! It was almost as if he was doing it on purpose. And after talking to some of the other people, I'm wondering if Tom was just pulling information out of his butt the other night or if he is trying to mess with our group. His intel could be completely made up just to screw with us.

My closest ally, Mama Kim, has said that she's been talking to Frank and that she's really getting to know him. That kind of scares me because it's my closest ally and my biggest "?" talking to each other. I could be totally wrong by listening to Tom, and Frank could actually be completely trustworthy! Hopefully Mama Kim is establishing a good relationship with Frank so that he's not a problem later.

On a side note, the fact that Lex still hasn't shown his face around has made the target on his back a big whopping inevitability!

[Mia Galeotalanza]

Hey Diane! Sorry I haven't been around much to chat it up with you...

Anyways, loving the updates so far! But next, I'd really like to hear your thoughts on all your individual tribemates! maybe you could do some sort of ranking for us?

[Diane]

Of course!! I'll leave Lex out considering the situation. I'll put them in order of trust/likability.

1) Mama Kim - My closest ally. I really connected with Mama Kim at the beginning and we got into a final 3 alliance right off the bat. I still trust her completely, but I'm hoping she isn't too swayed by Frank because for some reason I still think he's likely to pull something.

2) Clarence - While Tom is still part of my final 3 with Mama Kim and me, I connected more with Clarence, and I would likely put him in our final four, and if Tom turns out to be a schemer, then I would definitely place him in the final 3 with us instead of Tom.

3) Lindsey - I really like Lindsey, we seem to have a good bit in common, and she expressed to me that she doesn't often do well in social situations. This makes me want to take her under my wing and keep her safe as part of the group and assure her that she is liked and welcome.

4) Linda - At first I thought that Linda may be scheming against our tribe with Frank, but after talking to her I really like her. We have a lot in common and I'd like to enter into a trusting relationship with her if possible. I think it's funny that Mama Kim who is my closest ally is weary of her while I'm weary of Frank, whom Mama Kim has apparently grown more fond of. I don't wanna have to split decisions with Mama Kim on anything because that breaks down trust, so hopefully we can change our minds about our respective suspicions for Linda and Frank :)

5) Tom - I trusted Tom at first, and Mama Kim seems to still trust him, but lately I'm starting to wonder if he is just shooting off at the mouth to cause drama or stir up the tribe or whatever! He may just be an idiot and ranting about things he doesn't even know. But I don't think I can trust his intel if he continues to pull crap like he did at the immunity challenge last night. He just started telling Jeff all sorts of crap without addressing the group! Where's the teamwork there??? Tom may be in my final 3 (which I'm regretting now) but what I think of him at the moment is still up in the air.

6) Frank - Frank is the person I trust the least on our team, but I do have a few things in common with him, and he's at least likable. Not to mention he's very good at challenges, at least the first one. I would label him as the MVP of that first challenge no problem. I hope that it turns out he IS trustworthy and we can rely on him as a solid member of the tribe.

7) Kim P - The jury is so out on this one. I've had almost no interaction with her, and I don't even know what to think. She doesn't ever respond to my PMs, and she just sent me a message tonight saying she wanted to catch up. Guess I'll have to see how things turn out with her. It's still early in the game.