by Mike

I woke up at 8:35 to go to mass this morning, I brought my camera thinking there might be some good pictures but of course I was over ambitious… I’m not going to take pictures during a church service. I did take a video, though. It was of the choir from Porto Vecchio singing during the mass – it was apparently a special occasion to have them there, so I’m glad we caught it. The service would have been pretty dry without, I’m sure.

I’ve been unimpressed with this church. I guess I shouldn’t have expected much since we are staying in a convent – it’s not going to be revolutionary – but there seems to be an enormous disconnect between the Fathers and real life.

Father Joseph was skeptical of me at first, probably because I rang during lunch, but then he warmed when Azure showed up. I told him we were here to learn. I think when I said that he understood me to mean that I wanted to learn about Christ and Christianity. Of course I’m way more curious about the life of a Catholic priest living in a convent, but it didn’t translate.

I asked whether he’d studied Judaism and Islam, two religions based on the same god and the same core texts. He said he had, but he was dismissive of them, saying essentially that the Jews had missed the boat and then he downplayed Mohammad’s importance. It sounded silly from where I was sitting. Here’s how he sounded from my perspective: A guy handed people a book from god and it was ok at the time. Then another guy came along and amended that book and added his own stuff and only fools didn’t follow. Then a third guy came along and amended that book and added his own stuff and only fools did follow. It sounded childish, narrow-minded.

I told him we were going to a prehistoric site that day and asked if it was good. “Well, it’s fine if you’re interested in rocks and old stuff.” (Which, actually, I am). I asked him what he was interested in. He pointed to the beautiful blue sky and the sun.
“The sun?”
“God.”
“Oh, right.”

His lectures to us were in line with what I understand of traditional Christianity: “People say that the earth was created long ago and life formed slowly, but what force drove it? There must have been some force.” “I live to serve others. You need to ask yourself, are you doing something for others or for yourself? If it’s for yourself, it’s egoism.” “Some people think that when you die that’s it, you disappear, but I believe part of us lives forever.” “My life is about knowing god. I aim to reject all material comforts.”

We got one glimpse into their part of the convent and it felt like sneaking into the teachers’ lounge. Everything was extremely clean, extremely organized. He showed us the sun room and it took our breaths away – the sun room had the best view we’d seen of the town and valley, and it must be the best you can find without renting a helicopter. The convent is perched on the side of a hill and the priests’ quarters stick out a little farther for unobstructed 180 degree views. The sun room was bright when the rest of the convent was dark, but what caught our attention was on the table and window sills – there were a dozen orchids staring at us appearing simultaneously fragile and stately and defiant and precious. It didn’t seem right for him to have orchids after what he repeated about materialism.

His office, actually, was the only place that wasn’t neat. Papers were spread on the desk as he prepared his Sunday sermon. I asked what the sermon would be about. “Well, it’s about the gospels.” Well, what’s the subject? “The teachings of Jesus… here,” he handed me a small book, almost a pamphlet. “Every church in the world follows this book so every Sunday you get the same message no matter which church you go to.” I opened the book which was organized by date. It was just excerpts from the bible, as far as I could tell.

This happened again and again when talking to him – I’d ask for perspective or an interpretation or insight and he’d defer to something like, “Well, I reject materials and try to live simply. I’ve made my choice to follow God. Other people make other choices, but you can’t go around changing your mind.” That last statement, ‘you can’t go around changing your mind,’ got under my skin. It’s either ignorance or stubbornness.

–

The first piece read at Mass today was about Adam and Eve getting expelled from the Garden of Eden for choosing to pursue knowledge. I looked at our, “we just want to learn” statement a little differently. I have two aims when I travel: To learn and to experience (which teaches). It makes my life look incredibly at odds with the aims of the Church. If the apple represented the forbidden fruits of knowledge, then humans were rejected from the Garden of Eden for satisfying their curiosity (learning) and lust (experiencing).

The Mass was bland, uninspiring, he didn’t say anything about real life and in general it looked like he was trying to project authority. Here are the quotes I wrote down: “Readjust your attitude during these 40 days.” (before Easter), “You are made in God’s image.” “Separate your heart from materials.” “Spread the Good News to your neighbors.”

The Mass was conducted in such simple words that I could understand almost everything. The message I received from our week at the church is one that I wasn’t expecting: “Don’t question things. Let God take care of it.” I’m open to talking about religious philosophies (it’s where the rubber meets the road, after all) but not if it’s without critique. Not if I’m simply told to “have faith.” I guess I don’t.

(By the way – If anyone [like Fred, especially] has some insight on the apple story I’d welcome critical comments).

by Mike

So, the convent isn’t perfect, but it’s cheap! which makes up for everything. Azure mentioned the creepy statues, but also the heat goes off at 10pm (for which they’ve given us extra blankets) and 10pm is also the curfew. There’s no bathroom in the room, but there is a sink, and that covers 80% of what you’d do in a bathroom anyway. And we sleep in two single beds, which we’ve pushed together. We’ve managed.

It’s tough to find cheap accomodation on Corsica, the whole thing is set up for rich German tourists. After striking out for a while in Sartene I walked into the old town and stopped under a pair of women talking on a balcony and told them we needed a room.
“Ah, my aunt has a room, do you want me to ask?”
“Great, yes”
“AY!” She yelled down the narrow street, and it echoed. “AY!” The aunt didn’t answer, so the lady went down the stairs to the street, around the corner and walked in a door. “This guy wants a room, is anyone staying with you?” Here on Corsica they speak a really choppy French, almost like Italian, and the French these women spoke sounded like it was coming through a megaphone through a lawnmower.
I was shown a room that was 60 Euros (too much) and not perfect. So after consulting with Azure I went back and told them it wouldn’t work.
“Sorry, we want access to a kitchen.”
“HE WANTS ACCESS TO A KITCHEN.”
“HE WANTS A KITCHEN? MAYBE MARIE HAS A ROOM!” I was standing on the street with the aunt and she was shouting at her neice who was around the corner of the building, up two flights of stairs and back on her balcony. It felt like the small old town was their house.
“CAN YOU CALL HER?”
“YEAH, I’LL CALL HER! HEY, COME UP HERE!” I went up to the lady’s balcony where she called her cousin who didn’t have a room.
“ASK HIM HOW MUCH HE WANTS TO SPEND.”
“How much do you want to spend?”
“As little as possible, we don’t-”
“AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE!”
“AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE?”
“YEAH!”
“WHAT ABOUT PIERRE?”
“Oh, maybe Pierre has a room, I’ll try him.”
“Ok.”
“OH, PIERRE DOESN’T HAVE A KITCHEN.”
“She doesn’t think Pierre has a kitchen.”
“Ok.”
“HAS HE TRIED THE CONVENT?” the aunt yelled up.
“Have you tried the convent?” I didn’t know the word for convent, ‘couvent’ – I thought maybe they were talking about a town.
“No, I don’t know anything about it.”
“HAS HE TRIED THE CONVENT?”
“Excuse me, how do you spell, ‘couve-’”
“NO, HE HASN’T TRIED IT! DO THEY HAVE A KITCHEN?”
“I THINK IT HAS A KITCHEN”
“WHAT?”
“I THINK IT HAS A KITCHEN!”
“She thinks it has a kitchen.”
“BUT YOU HAVE TO BE IN BY 10.”
“But you have to be in by 10. Is it a problem?”
“Oh, it’s not a problem, we don’t make parties or anything.”
“DOES HE KNOW HE HAS TO BE IN BY 10?”
“HE DOESN’T MAKE PARTIES”
“WHAT?”
“HE SAID HE DOESN’T MAKE PARTIES!”
I decided to get things moving along. “Great, thank you so much, That sounds perfect. So where is it?”
She grabbed my arm and led me down the stairs, past her aunt and to the bottom of the road, and she pointed up. “See the church?” Yep. “It’s just on the side. Tell them Mme. Bonne sent you.”

I went back to Azure. “I think I got a lead.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYVbKcqR1yk&hl=en&fs=1]

Top to bottom: The guys sitting on the ledge the day before, Mike at the cafe on the plaza in Sartene, Mike’s favorite dog, Me checking out some good ears, The scene, Beagles like to sleep on each other, The perfect valley

by Azure

Today, Sunday (actually now it is yesterday) we decided to make it a no scooting day. We have been riding from morning until night everyday since we got to Corsica. We’ve seen a ton and done some nice hikes, but it is exhausting after a week straight. Luckily, it is also the only day that it has rained hard since we got here. Perfect. In the morning we decided to go to mass, since we are staying in the church. It was my 4th time attending a church service and honestly I would describe it as “Same-same.”

After church, we went to the center square for coffee. We sat and wrote and hung out for a couple hours until lunch. We have been asking for recommendations from everyone about where to eat and so we went to a place that a couple people had mentioned. We sat down and the woman working was initially semi-kind to us. When we asked what something was and it was clear that we were not french, she was initially cold. We ordered the leg of lamb, brocciu cannelloni and a caraf of wine. We had been talking about how usually when we eat out, it is a little disappointing. We usually order a pasta that we could have made at home for a third of the price or a salad that is sub-par, but the food was delicious. All of it.

We were very content and by the time the dessert came, we were the only people in the restaurant. With much persistence and attempts at conversation, the woman finally came over to talk with us at length. The day before we had been driving back from the other side of the island and saw a bunch of men sitting on a ledge looking at something. We had stopped and asked what was going on and found out that they were hunting for wild boars. Apparently there were dogs in the valley chasing boars and they were waiting for them to return. We had gotten back on the scooter and around the next corner, there were probably 100 more guys and families doing the same thing. We had so many questions about this, but our usual market wasn’t open and so we had to ask elsewhere–thus the woman at the restaurant.

The woman at the restaurant ended up warming up to us. She eventually gave us her recipe for cream of limoncello, which she says she never gives out and answered all of our questions about the hunters. How many boars are out there? If there are 100 hunters and one boar, how do they not shoot each other? Who gets to keep the boar? and so on. It turns out that they aren’t actually hunting, they are just sending the dogs out to see which dogs are the best. It is actually more like a dog show. And, it only happens once a year. We had to go!

So, we got on the scooter even though we said we wouldn’t and rode the 45 minutes to a middle of nowhere town called Serragia through our favorite valley, which, when we rode through it for the first time, Mike remarked that it seemed out of a fantasy. Even with the gray day, the route was just as beautiful as it always is.

When we pulled in to the dog show, the scene was this…a lot of men dressed in camouflage gear hanging around talking to each other. To the left were 8 or so temporary dog pens. Each pen had a different team of dogs in it, each team was purebred, but the breeds of the teams were not the same. There were two teams of tall beagles, one of dachshunds, two hound looking breeds and two of the shaggy toy looking breeds. I really didn’t care about the ones that weren’t beagles or hounds. On the right side of the road there was a huge tent set up. Inside the tent, a guy was preparing mutton for 80, there were a few makeshift bars set up with help yourself liquor and there was also a guy outside selling handmade hunting knives. It was quite the scene and we stuck out immediately.

A woman walked by and asked if we were German. Everyone on Corsica thinks we’re German. Apparently a lot of Germans come here and (this is the good part) every time we tell them that we are actually Americans, they get really interested and are really nice to us. I don’t think many Americans come here and I think they are also happy about our new president. The woman showed immediate enthusiasm and out in the middle of Corsica in a town of about 40 people, we shared a moment of excitement about Obama.

One guy that was tending to the fire, a large burn pile that would later cook the food, came over and talked to us. He showed us around and made us feel comfortable in the tent, even though we were obviously outsiders and he explained things to us. The prize is not money or getting to keep the boar. Again, there is no actual boar caught during this weekend, but the price of your dogs if you win the competition goes up. He said one dog goes for at least E500. I know this is a lot of money, but seeing as though people spend $2,000 on yippy dogs in the States, I thought this was a good deal, I mean these dogs can find you a months worth of boar for your whole family.

After about 20 minutes and a stop at the candy cake he went back to the fire. We debated whether to stay for dinner or not, but decided that we wouldn’t be able to make the ride back in the dark after the meal. Our scooter skills are good, but we don’t like to push it too much. We drove back to town and then to our internet cafe. All the regulars were there and the bartender gave us free drinks again. It was a good day.