Cheese!

Three days ago I received this is my ever overflowing inbox:

Dear and beautiful coyears!

Today it’s been 100 since we came to MUWCI!

Maybe this is not a reason enough for a mass email,

but I really wanted to appreciate all the love we have given each other

and all the beautiful trees we have planted in this planet that is our home.

Let’s have another amazing and adventurous 100 days and more!

Loads of hugs.

This was from Ciro, a my hilariously beautiful Spanish coyear. It was the perfect reminder for me to slow down, to breathe. The past few weeks have been a technicoloured whirlwind of pierogi, peace festivals, pots of tea and presents. The upcoming ‘winter’ holiday (ha! back to shimmering Australia for me!) is also a constant source of excitement. All this action was engulfing everything, leaving me constantly dazed and confused. No exception was the beautifully confusing experience of Cheese Fest.

Yes, Cheese Fest. A cheese festival. FOR CHEESE!! How exciting!!! I was
informed of this incredible happening by Gaby (England/Carribean) who seems to have far more knowledge of local goings on than I. Along with Jesse (I think you know where she’s from by now) we took an overnight in Pune. After a coffee and an ultrasound of Gaby’s spleen, we made our way to A.B.C. Farms Pvt Ltd, a natural organic dairy company hosting the Cheese and Wine Festival. It was tucked away down an alley off a busy street (we actually walked passed it the first time) and adorned with bunting and trestle tables.

 We walked around sampling testers and acting knowledgable while listening to talks about sustainable development and organic produce. We bought coffee (a vital component of MUWCI life), cheesecake (obviously), Lemsi (a lemon/lassi experimentation) and various other local produce before heading out to find a place to stay.

It was definitely amazing enough to have cheese that in no way resembled Kraft ‘cheddar’.

Unimpressed with the tasting notes of our glasses of water

The hotel was in a dodgy backstreet and full of some kind of smoke (we hope incense??) but the owners were nice, asking us kindly if we were going out partying to please be home by midnight.

We headed to a turkish restaurant owned by the same organic farm and indulged with hummus and coffee – very different from Caf food! As was our brunch the following morning. After a morning walk through out the backstreets of Pune (we found run down bollywood film theatre to return to!) we had an amazing breakfast at ‘One-O-Eight Cafe And Yoga Studio’.

Despite the lack of yoga, it was an incredibly exciting spread of baked and poached eggs, grilled tomato, spinach, pesto and tea.
After more tea and a apple&cinnamon muffin with toffee sauce (!!) we headed off to somehow find a way back to school, but not before I had ordered the serendipitously named ‘Aussie’ sandwich (it contained vegemite), I really had to.

This turned out to be a slight issue, the return I mean – the sandwich was incredible! After 5 hours we were still in Pune, our only phone broken and making gurgling noises, as the first rain in a month started. Positively, Jesse was able to nock off ₹100 from a map of India due to her intensely intimidating apathy.

The weirdness of this entirely separate experience of Pune was reinforced when I returned to school. I had spent a weekend in an almost exclusively ex-pat community, eating mozzarella and vegemite sandwiches, all within Pune. It was bizarre when compared to the previous experiences I’ve had this term. I enjoyed it, but it was a different kinda of enjoyment.

**Thanks to Gaby and Jesse for the photos!!

 

 

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