gobbledigook.

Thanksgiving is quite the interesting occasion here, considering that majority of our friends and students are from Asia, and have no idea what the point of Thanksgiving is..

The day was long and I found myself quite homesick which embodied itself as anger; Nan was feeling much the same. To help take out this negative energy, we spent our afternoon violently chopping wood and participating in an epic battle/game with the monkeys, we would shoot rocks at them while cursing, they would disappear in fear, then return ten minutes later ready for the next round. Quite similar to what most people do on the afternoon of Thanksgiving, if you ask me.

Threatening a monkey with a hatchet in hand...

My brute strength lodged the axe into a very difficult situation.
It proved near impossible to remove..
(please note my excellent Thanksgiving day outfit)

We got a little too absorbed in those happenings and found ourselves in an extreme time crunch to make it all the way up the mountain to Mt. Hermon- where Noel lives and where the Thanksgiving feast was occurring. We crammed about 30 of us into her place and as is tradition, had way too much food. While there was no turkey, we did have some pretty tasty chicken, and excellent side dishes including pumpkin momos, heaps of potatoes, stuffed capsicum and quiche. A bit nontraditional, but delicious nonetheless.

 

Nan and I had a second feast on Friday, when we had our Christmas gift delivered early..
Here is an email that Nan received a while back:

From: Abhra Bhattacharjee
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 12:30 PM
Subject: Cheese, anyone?
Importance: High

Dear friends,

We are in the process of ordering some bukhari’s from Manali soon and the bukhari distributor is also a cheese manufacturer. The cheese is quite good and we are paying for the transport anyway so you do not have to pay for that.

Please let me know before the end of the day tomorrow if you would like to order any of the cheese as listed below and the quantities you want so I can place the order. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think may be interested… Arrival is expected to be in about 2 weeks….

I will follow up with you individually for payment…

Sir/Madam,

We are making following cheese, price per Kg.

1) Himalayan Asiago @320/kg

2) Himalayan Mountian.@400/kg

3) Himalayan Gouda.@400/kg

4) Himalayan Gouda  with chilly/black pepper/mixed herbs.@400/kg

5) Emmental.@475/kg

6) Mozzerralla in brine.@350/kg

7) Scormoza (smoked)@450/kg

8) Pizza cheese.@275/kg

9) yogurt@50/kg

5%vat or CST- 2% against form-C

The cheese we  are making is free from any preservatives or chemicals

Now, a bukhari is a wood burning stove. Why there is a place in India that manufactures both bukharis and cheese is still a mystery to me, but we thought we would take a gander, agreeing that this is one of the most exciting things that has happened to us in a while. And of course, we went a little bit crazy upon receiving this order, imagining the cheese would be just as great as it is in Wisconsin... ordering about 30 us dollars worth of the dream (keep in mind, we are on ridiculously small salaries, so 30 bucks is a big deal).

The cheese was delievered to school and brought to my classroom; in the middle of class. My students were quite curious as to what was in the large, heavy bag so I had to feed their curiuosity and show them what a nerd their teacher really is. Thankfully, most of them were just as excited as I was, and we had a discussion about how, yes, it is a proper example of a hyperbole when Ms. Shriver says she is going to eat all of the cheese in that bag immediately after school.

Nan and I basically ran home, eager to taste the goodness. We threw our bags on the floor, quickly grabbed knives and plates and delved in.

We were not impressed.

It is about the equivalent of eating rubber, with a bit of a smokey aftertaste. Nothing like Wisconsin cheddar.

Oliver demonstrating what it is like to eat rubber; in shoe form.

While we were not necessarily happy with our purchase, we still are bound and determined to eat it all, we just might be having many dinner parties with cheese based main dishes in the near future.

Before I forget: Yes, the blog title is in reference to Sigur Ros.
Also, you might be wondering about the weird 'hat' that was pictured above in the beginning of the entry. Nan's mom recently sent a package full of goodies from the Minnesota State fair, including numerous head pieces. Since the Native Americans were fond of head dresses, we thought it would be fitting for our dinner to include these bits of the Midwest, including corn on the cob, Gander Mountain antlers and an elaborate turkey head. These hats made the social rounds all night, gracing the heads of people from around the world; none of which have the slightest idea what Gander Mountain is. (Clearly, we are quite mature adults)

...and that was Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Woodstock style. I hope you all had a joyous and scintillating time in the company of family and friends.