The Triples Challenge (aka Kassie's Breakdown)

Overall, I would have to say that I have worked harder this summer than I ever have in my entire life.  This job is stressful, the hours are long, and its virtually impossible to have a normal life.   Yet I would not change one second of it. Now... that being said, right before Franz left for Austin to train the fall class of guides for another season, he decided that it would be interesting to count just how many triples each of us had worked.  And what do you know... I was winning.  But not far behind me were Kregg, John P., Leach, and Chris.

So, add in the fact that we were incredibly understaffed those last 2 weeks, Franz decides to make things a little more interesting.  Whoever works the most triples by the time he gets back (in 1 week) is going to get a prize.  Sounds good right?  And then lets stop and think about this... we're burnt out... every single one of us.  BUT propose a competition between a bunch of type A personalities and suddenly everyone is willing to work twice as hard again just to WIN!!! Subtle.

But... unfortunately for everyone else, I was so far ahead by this point that even with the boys working on their days off, they still couldn't catch up... so it wasn't much of a competition.  18 triples in 3 months.  I was told that I may be the runner up for the Fat Tire record... Blakely (the guy with the most) has a bike named after him.  Maybe someday I'll earn that honor.

So my prize?  Not quite 100 euros... but almost as good.  Franz brought me a real life Freebirds burrito - basically he froze it and let it thaw in his suitcase on the flight over.  My first Mexican food in 3 months... I could have died right then.  Best meal ever.

Now fast-forward to the next day - I woke up feeling... claustrophobic.  And unusually tired.  But I had another triple that day, so what could I do?  I had my morning Coca-Light and a cafe creme as lunch; but when I was done with my first walking tour, I was still exhausted.  Usually that much caffeine will KINDA wake me up.  I tried to take a 15 minute nap between tours, but I was so tired I couldn't sleep.  What a miserable feeling... and that claustrophobic feeling was only getting worse.  

But I was 3pm bike #1 - and as I was walking out the door, Leach (3pm #2) asked if I was doing ok and if I wanted him to go to the Tower for me  (I must have looked pretty bad.)  I said no, but I wasn't sure if I could do another triple that day.  So I left the shop and started walking... by the time I got to the courtyard behind the shop, I was in a full out nervous breakdown... sobbing, hyperventilating... the whole nine-yards.  There was no way I could go - so I called him up, and he ran to meet me and calmed me down.  

So I made it through tour #2 with the help of Leach, another Coca-Light, and a cafe creme.  And then there was night bike... I think I got back from my 3pm tour and I had to immediately turn around and run to the Tower.  As I walked out the door to grab a bike, I started to cry again.  Devin (our bike mechanic) looked at me and asked if I was ok... I think my response between tears and clenched teeth was, "No... but there's nothing I can do about it."  When I got back to the shop again, I was still crying... Lisa had to yell at me to snap me out of it.  Another Coca-Light later (as you can tell, I cannot survive without caffeine), and I had made it through night bike.  Not only that, but Heather was at the shop waiting for me when I rolled in at 12:30am with my favorite bottle of rose.  I have never needed a glass of wine so badly.

So although I won the triples challenge, I think my mental stability suffered a huge blow.  19 triples.  Lisa later told me that she was sorry she had to yell at me to shape up (I understood the reason why), but that I had accomplished what most boys couldn't... what most people couldn't.  And from her, I took that as a huge compliment.  I may not be working as many tours now (I think Franz is trying to keep me sane), but I now know my breaking point, and this kinda scares me.  I didn't think I had one.

I can't deny it... I'm scared about working here for another year.  I'm scared about not being able to go on... to have another day like that one.  That was by far the worst day in Paris.  Looking back now, I realize how strong I've been this summer... but I need a break.  I need to forget about that day and just remember the good times and the fun I've had.  Because that's what makes doing this worthwhile.  That's what makes it fun to get up and be excited day after day.

How can I sit in a cubicle after a summer like this? My bike is my desk, and Paris is my office.

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My Plans

I know that I've told some of you what my future plans are, but if I haven't emailed you in a while or just if you're wondering... here are my plans for the next few months:

• August - finish working in Paris; go to Italy with my Mom and Gran
• August 25th - fly home to Houston
• 1st weekend home - family reunion in Granbury
• 2nd weekend home - College Station Reunion!!!
• September through December - work for the candy factory (Sweet Taste of Texas)
• Christmas and New Years - Egypt with Liz and Megan?!
• January - backpack through Vienna, Prague, and Germany
• February 10th - start working for Fat Tire again
• February through November - MORE BIKE/SEGWAY/WALKING TOURS!!!

My current motto is, "Do it till it's not fun anymore." And since this is still fun, I'm going to take advantage of it and work here in Paris for another 9 months. So all of you who want to come to Europe, you now have a place to stay. Anyone who doesn't want to come to Europe but wants to see me, you know where I'll be (and you should come anyway.)

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Tour de France

I've suddenly come to the harsh realization that some people are very dumb. A woman came up to some Fat Tire employees and asked "what was going on?" while the Tour de France was riding into town. I understand not knowing that the tour was coming through Paris that day, but then she proceeded to ask "what's the Tour de France?"

So (not to insult anyone's intelligence or anything) but the Tour de France is a really big bike race! And it ends in Paris every year on the last Sunday of the month... in fact it ends in the Place de la Concorde - they make 8 loops from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place and then its over. Yay!

I was lazy and didn't go to the Place to watch it end, but it did ride down the quai right next to my apartment, so I got a video.

Carlos Sastre won (he's Spanish). Sad for all the Australians rooting for Cadel Evans (I wanted him to win too!)

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Versailles

So Liz and I finally got out on our bike tour of Versailles.

I just want to hit the high points in pictures:

This is just a cool pic of flowers with the Grand Trianon in the background.

Liz and I and the Grand Canal. This was Louis XIV swimming pool (and our picnic spot.)
The amazingness that was our picnic. Lets just say that Liz and I bought enough food to feed a small army... 4 baguettes, 4 types of cheese, rasberries, avocado, humus, fresh apricots, some weird yogurt dip, pain au chocolat, wine, cherries... omg... my days of PB&J picnics are over. Glorious feast.

After all that, the chateau was kinda a let down. I remembered it being a lot cooler the first time (but maybe that's because we didn't get to see the gardens.) So... instead, this is a view of the gardens from the chateau.

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Bastille Day

So for some reason, most countries have some sort of holiday in July that celebrates their independence. The US has the 4th of July - we signed a piece of paper declaring our independence... awesome. Canada has July 1st - I don't think that Canadians even know what that really means. And France has Bastille Day - July 14th. Out of these 3... Bastille Day wins.

Disclaimer: my tour guide-ness is about to kick in, but I feel like you need some background of the awesomeness that is Bastille Day. (If you don't care... here's a pic of the blue Eiffel Tower... this is as good as my camera gets without a tripod.)

The French Revolution was way cooler than the American Revolution. More blood, guts, and glory. Not to mention France had not 1, not 2, but THREE revolutions within the span of 40 years... fabulous. Since 1789 France has had 5 republics, 2 monarchies, a democratic monarchy, 2 empires, a facist regime, and an anarchist government and all (except the one we're in right now) have ended in bloodshed. Fabulous.

But back to the first one - so causes of the French Revolution:

1) High taxes: the average French person was being taxed 80% of their wages at the end of the 18th century. The richest 3% of the population (the nobles and clergy) weren't being taxed at all. Marie Antoinette was creating 2 foot high hairdo's complete with models of ships, and everyone else barely has enough to get by.

2) France sent a bunch of solidiers to help in another little revolution. It was pretty successful from what I hear - you may have heard of it. The American Revolution. Kind of a big deal. What were we fighting for? Lower taxes. Freedom of speech, religion, press. All these things were completely foreign in France. So the solidiers come back with all these radical ideas! And why did France send soldiers over in the first place? (It looks pretty bad that one monarchy would try to help a bunch of colonist overthrow another monarchy.) Oh... because its the BRITISH! That explains everything! Let's throw a bunch of money that we don't have into a war that we don't need to be in all because we're fighting the BRITISH! Stupid.

3) The winter of 1788 and 1789 was the worst winter France had seen in 90 years. Killed all the crops. And why was it a bad winter? Because of a volcanic eruption in Iceland. (I'm actually totally serious.) If this hadn't happened, the French Revolution may never have happened. The bread shortage was pretty much the last straw and this is where we get that awesome quote, "If they have not bread, let them eat cake!"

So Bastille Day... what is it? Well... basically this was a mob uprising. Before this, there were a lot of "on paper victories" for the French... kinda like our Declaration of Independance. So think of Bastille Day like our Boston Tea Party... but WAY BETTER!

The Bastille was this legendary prison/torture chamber. The press (they always manage to blow things out of proportion) had been hyping it up that if you were speaking out against the government, that you were being held at the Bastille. So the people march over to this place, kill about 100 guards, take out their pocket knives, saw off the warden's head, parade it around town on a spike. How many prisoners do they release? Oh wait... 7. Ya. That's it. 7.

If're you're like me... you're probably a little confused about why they celebrate this every year.

But celebrate they do... over 600,000 people were in the Champs de Mars. We got there at 4pm to stake out our spot. Only in France would they play a medley of Beatles music, and then suddenly switch to opera. It was amazing. So we hang out there till 10:30 (awesome fireworks), and then went back to Julien's to keep the party going. The pics below basically sum up the night.

But the best part is... Liz got here today! (So this explains why my posting has suddenly ceased... I'm going to catch everyone up on what's been going on... I promise.)

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Solidays

So... just in case you're planning on coming to Paris in the next year or so, you need to know that all stores in France (unlike America) are only allowed to have 2 sales a year.

America has grand opening sales, and closing sales, and semi-anual sales, and just-because-its-Friday sales - but France is highly regulated, they have just recently accepted some of the basic principals of capitalism (such as competition) and the government strictly monitors this.

So on June 21st the sales began... and when they say SALES they're not kidding!!!

Its like being in a giant candy store and being told that for everypiece of candy you buy, you get to eat one for free.

I literally went shopping all day yesterday, and I have not had that much fun in a long time. I basically parked my bike at the top of the Blvd St. Germain and shopped my way to the Cluny Museum, a little ways up and down Blvd St. Michel, and then shopped my way back to my bike. (The tricky part was riding home with all my stuff.)

So... if you were thinking about coming to France, now is your chance - come before the sales are over because the next one won't be till Christmas.

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Euro Cup

So every 4 years, Europe has its own equivalent to the World Cup soccer tournament called the Euro Cup. Its supposedly a pretty big deal. Well, right when it started, Mike announced that we were going to have a little Fat Tire pool - kinda like March Madness where you pick your brackets etc. 10 euros to enter. The winner takes all.

Now, most of you... no wait... ALL of you know that I don't care about sports. Sitting through a sporting event (in my mind) is equivalent to some kind of torture. If I go at all, its for the atmosphere and the fact that I get to talk to people - which usually makes at least half of the guys mad because I'm distracting them from watching the game. But whatever.

So I decide to enter the pool, just because I don't want to be that one person who's not in it. Of course I have no idea what I'm doing, so right before our first picks are due I had given a tour to some Kiwis, so I asked them for advice. They said that Spain and Portugal were pretty good this year. Ok - that's more than I know, so I picked Spain and Portugal. The rest of my picks were pretty random - Switzerland (because I want to go there), Russia (because they seem kinda mean), Germany (no idea), Croatia (because I want to go sailing there). The weird thing was - I picked almost all the same ones that everyone else did! (How that happened, I'll never know.)

Then the trash talking starts, Franz semi-mocks me (naturally), and John Phillips MERCILESSLY mocks Eliza (another guide) for her picks... she did things like "Swiss and Turkey" because it makes a good sandwich.

Somehow I make it through the first round... and guess what... I'm beating Franz! I wasn't perfect, but because I knew nothing, I picked teams that no one thought would win and they did! YEAH!

Now we had to pick our final bracket. Again, I just keep thinking, "Spain and Portugal. Spain and Portugal." I want to say that Portugal had already lost so it was just, "Spain." (Honestly - I didn't watch one game... and I couldn't tell you who I picked for the most part.)

A few games into it, John Phillips is losing with Eliza (trash talking always comes back and bites you), and its down to Murray, Franz, David Phillips, and.... ME!!!! Murray loses in the semis, and its down to me, Franz, and David. If Germany wins, Franz and David tie... if Spain wins, I WIN!!

Poor Franz had lost to a six year old in the March Madness pool this year - the little boy who lives upstairs from us named Calvin won 80 euros and spent it all on Pokemon cards. So I feel like Franz really had to make up for this humiliating loss. But his new battle cry was, 2nd is only 2nd... unless its to Kassie.

Now... if you follow the Euro Cup, you know how this story ends....

SPAIN WINS!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... the girl who knows nothing beat all the boys!!! I didn't even get to watch the game, I was on tour - but I had my tour chanting, GO SPAIN!" in front of Franz before we left, and people texted me the score throughout the game... now I know why sports are so much fun!!! :-P

So now I'm 100 euros richer - but for me, its not about the money, its about the HUGE BRAGGING RIGHTS!!! YEEEAAAAHHH!!!

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