TV Watch

Survivor‘s Ashley: Crap Comes Out of Russell Constantly

10/18/2009 at 12:00 AM EDT

Ashley Trainer, a perky former cheerleader from Maple Grove, Minn., blames her exit from Survivor: Samoa on the rain. The 22-year-old chatted with PEOPLE about Russell’s slimy strategizing, skin loss and sealife smoothies. – Carrie Bell

You seemed like you didn’t think you were in trouble of being voted off.Initially, I was like, Oh good. It’s not me. I honestly didn’t think it was. But at tribal with what everyone was saying, I realized I was the next to go.

Considering you lost the smoothie reward, and Jeff pointed out that you weren’t good at coconut basketball, wasn’t it naïve to think you weren’t the obvious choice to send home?Yeah, thanks for pointing that out, Jeff. I was probably the obvious choice based on the last two challenges, but I thought my alliance was really tight and I had been good at challenges before those.



At tribal you picked Russell as one of the you trusted the most. How does it feel to know he was actually the least trustworthy, not to mention, he called you names and talked a lot of trash.It really sucked because I truly trusted him. The last couple of days I started to realize the little games he was playing. I started to want to go against him and I think that’s part of the reason I got voted out. I think he realized I was on to him. It’s a game but it still sucks to have someone say stuff like that about you.

Is he really that good at lying, manipulating and strategizing?

He is always in game mode. Crap is coming out of his mouth constantly and we bought every minute of it. He snuck me extra food saying that he was worried about how much weight I was losing. I watch now and think, “Wow. We were so stupid not to vote him out.” I hate to say it but he is playing on hell of a game. But I don’t think we can have a friendship after all is said and done.

It was a very rough final three days for you between the rain and the sea slug gut shake.It was absolutely horrible. My entire tribe was counting on me finishing and I had the hardest one. There were chunks of nastiness that I had to chew. I threw up on the first gulp. On top of that, it was raining constantly and it was cold. We had to huddle in the shelter for hours. You can’t concentrate on the game. When I left, there was a layer of skin on my hands and feet that had to come off. It had separated from my body. Your body and metabolism are so screwed up after you go through this. I’m just now getting back to normal. That said I’d do it again.

What was the first thing you ate when you left the game?I wanted peanut butter toast so bad it was insane. I had four pieces for breakfast the next day. You get sick but you just keep eating because you’re so hungry.

Who are you rooting for?I love Natalie. We made this amazing connection. We are like sisters and I understand that she had to vote for me.

What’s your next move?I graduated from college with a degree in communications and went to Survivor a few weeks later. I was working in a tanning salon as a spa consulate. Now I’m looking for a big girl job in sales, pr or marketing. As of now, I am planning on staying in Minnesota although our winters are horrible. But after Survivor, they probably won’t seem so bad either.

CBS