Lauren and I with our jazzy, sassy fingernails we painted on the bus (yes I still bite my nails….) (also please note, jazzy, sassy for her is nude and for me is green. weird)
So I knew celebrating my birthday on the race would be interesting and unlike anything I'd ever experienced before, and I was not disappointed! To give an idea of just how different this year was, last year I had a fancy pants party with tons of balloons, fancy clothes, delicious finger foods, and personalized m&ms. Here's how I celebrated this year:
My 31 candle, please note I was EXHAUSTED by this point, hence the creepy eyes!
- When the clock struck midnight I had already been on a bus for about 8 hours. I had about 12 more hours to go.
- We were at the border crossing of Macedonia and Bulgaria at midnight so I literally started my birthday no where! I wasn't in Macedonia any more and hadn't yet made it to Bulgaria. AWESOME!
- This also means I spent my birthday in 3 different countries. I love the World Race!
- As you can see the majority of my birthday was spent on a bus driving through Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania. On said bus I was: sung to, given a chocolate treat with a candle in it from my team, painted my nails with Lauren, watched I Love You Man, slept, laughed a ton, chair danced to Ke$ha's Blow and thought I was going to pee my pants because the bathroom on the bus was broken (nothing new there–the bathrooms NEVER work!) and our driver didn't want to make stops.
- Considered changing my shirt and underpants, washing my face and brushing my teeth as "getting ready" to celebrate my birthday after the 20 hour bus ride.
- Had my birthday dinner at the fanciest McDonald's in the world! A Big Mac never tasted so good! It also had the fanciest cafe with an amazing cappuccino and chocolate croissant! But let me repeat–my birthday dinner was at McDonald's.
- On the walk home we passed a flower shop and my bought me a gerber daisy, my favorite flower!
- They also bought me a Tangled Pez dispenser, a Kinder Bueno bar and this fantastic hazelnut candy bar–all my favorites! And all things that I "need" on the race.
- Watched Tangled with my team and then they all wrote prayers for what they hoped my 31st year would hold on this cool wish paper that Krissy gave me before I left and we sent them off into the sky to end the night.
- The neighbors almost called the police because we were so loud.
- I also was super blessed by the rest of the squad just loving on me and wishing me well wishes for this year!
My birthday dessert from McDonald's–doesn't that look good?!!?
So this birthday was SUPER different but also SUPER great! I'm so thankful for my wonderful teammates and awesome squadmates for making my birthday special even though we were on a bus for hours and hours and we are living on a crazy small budget!
Thanks to all of you at home who sent me well wishes and chose to support my teammates Rikki and Jenna! They've each gotten a good sum of money but still need more! Tomorrow's the basketball game and they've already raised over $600! Awesome! Here's hoping that beard is gone! There's still time to commit to giving to them and getting rid of the beard! You just need to comment on Evan's blog ASAP!!
Love you all!
