A Perfect Example of the Title of this Blog . . .

. . . suddenly, we are cat-owners-by-proxy. Which is to say, our housekeeper's son took in a stray kitten, and I've taken some responsibility for it, dealing with vet care and so on, and letting it stay at our house during the day, when there's nobody home at their house. But these things snowball (guess what Joffre named the kitten?), and I have a feeling the shift of ownership is going to be inevitable. The kids are totally smitten, and it's heartwarming to see how loving and caring they are with the little guy.

But we can't take a kitty back to Canada with us.

I want a kitty.

sigh . . .

Uighur Nan Recipe

This is a bread I truly love. You have to cook it on a pizza stone or on the back of a cookie sheet in the oven at the highest heat you have - around 500 degrees.

Ingredients:
1.25 cups warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast
1/2 Tbsp salt
3.5 cups (approx) white flour

Garnish:
rock salt
chopped green onion
caraway seeds
cumin seeds

Mix the sugar with the water and sprinkle the yeast overtop. Once the yeast is nice and foamy, add the salt and flour and mix and knead till you have a nice elastic dough. Cover, but don't oil, and leave to rise for about an hour in a warm place.

Punch dough down, knead briefly, and let rise again for about a 1/2 hour.

Have a bowl of water handy for the next bit.

Roll dough out into a long snake and cut into eight equal pieces. Put the pizza stone or cookie sheet in the oven, and turn it on to 500 degrees. Shape pieces of dough into balls and roll out into 8-inch rounds (note: I cannot for the life of me make these rounds round). Using a fork, punch many many holes in the centre of the rounds. The idea is to leave the edges to puff up while the middle is flat and cracker-like. Wash a bit of the water over the surface of the round, sprinkle with rock salt, and toss a bit of green onion and spices over the centre. Place as many nans on the pizza stone as will easily fit without touching, and let bake until puffy and golden. When the nan comes out of the oven, brush it with a bit of melted butter while still hot.

Serve with curries, kebabs, Middle Eastern salads - - - anything you like, really.

Vague Nod at Food Category

I used to post recipes occasionally in my old blog, and I think I'll start doing it again. I'm lousy at recipes generally, since I usually just cook by instinct, but there is the odd recipe that is worth talking about:

Mediterranean Lamb Stew
Ingredients:
5-6 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
2 tsps cumin
1 tsp cardamom (optional)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ginger powder or small amount grated fresh ginger
1 tsp salt
3-4 lamb chops (neck)
1/2 chicken boullion cube or 1/2 tsp bouillion powder
4 large carrots
1.5 cups chopped zucchini, eggplant, or other squash
1 diced onion
1 cup fava or garbanzo beans, or substitute chopped green beans
1 large handful diced parsley or fresh coriander
juice of 1 small lemon
1 cup of green olives (or figs, or apricots, or raisins)

In a food processor or blender, combine everything before "lamb chops" (or just crush garlic and mix thoroughly with the rest). Coat chops with this mixture and let sit for 20 minutes or so. Put chops in a deep pot on the stove over a very low heat, and heat for ten or 15 minutes. Add water to cover, carrots, squash, onions and beans, cover, and let simmer over extremely low heat for 2 hours. Feel free to adjust quantities to taste.

Once lamb is well cooked, remove from stew and bring remaining ingredients to a boil, to thicken and reduce liquid. Cool lamb slightly and strip meat from bones. If you like, you can put the meat under the broiler at this point to crisp it and brown it a bit. When stew is nearly ready, reduce heat and add lemon juice, coriander or parsley, meat, and olives or fruit. Cook until olives or fruit are thoroughly heated.

Serve with steamed rice, couscous, or quinoa and fresh bread with butter.

Serves 4, or two really hungry people. ;)

What I've Been Waiting For

I got an email last night telling me that I'd been accepted at UBC. Only two days earlier, I'd received word that they finally had my LSAT score and had forwarded my application on for review.

It feels so wonderful to have this over with, and just be looking forward to the next step. I feel like looking into picking up textbooks ahead of time so I can get studying before the school year starts. That's gotta be a good sign!

Oh, the Glitches . . .

So, I finally followed up on the file status issue. It turns out that they were under the impression that my LSAT was not to be taken until February. I cringe when I think of the office staff rolling their eyes at the twit who wants to know if her file is complete, when she hasn't even written the test yet . . .

So I emailed with my score and my LSAC ID number, but got no response. For five days. So I phoned and talked with an administrator who was very sweet and friendly but not at all helpful - basically she told me not to worry, and that my file was not complete but that everything would be fine.

Today I called the woman with whom I'd been emailing, directly, and asked her about it. She said that when they try to get my score from LSAC, they get a "results unavailable, future test date" message, or something to that effect. So, it looks as though the problem is on LSAC's end, not mine (as in, mistake on application), or on the university's. So, I guess that's good? She said she would look into it, took my SIN and LSAC ID again, and said she'd let me know what she digs up.

At least I'm on their radar now, right?

The Waiting Game

We've all been there. The work is done, the effort put in, the application complete, and now we just sit back and wait. And wait. And wait.

I have no idea when the school's acceptance committee meets, although I do know that people who had submitted complete applications in October (mine was complete then except for the LSAT score) got responses in December. So, if we're thinking a two-month gap for them, I might not hear back till the beginning of March, if not later.

And the waiting is already driving me crazy. I finally broke down and emailed yesterday to see if my application is complete (a thinly veiled plea that they not forget about me), but of course I haven't heard back yet. And won't, now, till the weekend is over.

*sigh*

That won't stop me from obsessively checking my email, though.

So Not on the Ball

I don't know what my GPA from my undergrad is. Oh, I know it's good - but I want to know the number itself. How, you might ask, does a person not even know her GPA? Well, undergrad is a long time ago. I have a copy of my transcript somewhere, but I don't know where. Of course, they don't want to just tell me the GPA over the phone or email; they want me to fax a request form and pay a fee so they can mail a copy of the transcript to me. This is really not necessary, since I don't want a breakdown of the whole thing, just the final average.

I feel really not on the ball, when someone asks my GPA and I have to say, "I don't actually know."

They Want Me!

Well, I'm not that impressed with emailed fee waivers for law school application anymore. But I've gotten two fee waiver packages in the mail - here in Peru - that made my day. The one I got from Golden Gate University was nice, but my numbers are way higher than even their 75th percentile. Today, however, I got one from the University of Virginia School of Law - which is ranked 8th in the USA!!

So, I'm all happy now!

Solicitations

One of the things I really wasn't expecting after getting my LSAT score back was the steady stream of emails from universities I've never heard of, inviting me to apply to their programs. Many of them offer a waiver of their fees if I choose to apply.

I'm flattered, or I was at first, but now I'm just frustrated because the one place I *want* to hear from has remained mum.

I'm considering contacting them and asking if my file is complete, which is just a backhanded way of saying, "do you want me? Have you made a decision? When will you make a decision? Don't forget about me!" Which is desperate, pushy, and lame. Plus, and this might be overthinking it, if I draw attention to myself, I make it clear that I really want to go there, which might mean they won't offer scholarships to entice me. They're the only school I applied to, but they don't know that - mightn't it be nice to be wooed?

Or is that a pipe dream?

169

Yay!!!! On December 23, I was informed that my score was 169. That's 97th percentile of all test takers, and it feels good.

Guestimate

I will probably look foolish for doing this, but I'm going to guess my LSAT score:

167

This is based on my past performance on practice exams, and how I felt about the real deal when I wrote it. I figure I got about 86-88%, and I'm hoping that that translates to a score between 165 and 170, and 167 just feels like a good solid number.

Boy, if I got a 159 I'm going to feel sheepish . . .

Phase Two Complete

Well, I wrote the LSAT on Saturday. It was a near miss, actually. I heard from the good folks at Universidad Nacional de San Agustin in the morning on Tuesday that the test materials hadn't arrived yet. Wednesday morning, they told me the package should arrive Thursday, Friday at the latest. I'm not much of a panicker, so I failed to panic. I remained firm in my conviction that between the LSAC, UPS, and the good people at UNSA, my test materials would arrive on time.

Ha! I went to UNSA Friday morning for a dry run - time the cab ride over there, scope out the testing location, etc. When I arrived, I was told that the test materials had still not arrived. We used the UPS tracking number on the package to check its status, and it was still stranded in Lima - as it had been since November 8th!! Much frantic phoning and emailing ensued, with me contacting my husband to see if their expediter (is that word?) could expedite the shipment . . .

When I went to bed Friday night, I still had no idea whether the test materials would arrive. The woman at LSAC had told me that even if it arrived late, I could start at 2 pm or earlier - I was supposed to start at 8:30 am. Second son woke up at 3:30 am and kept his dad and me up for quite a while, but I was compensated for this by being allowed to sleep in until 6:55 am. Still no sign of the package at 7:30. Or at 8:30. By this time, I was convinced that I would not be writing the LSAT. However, a phone call at 10:15 am confirmed that the package had arrived, and I raced across town to UNSA.

I must have had a wildly different experience than most LSAT writers. I was the only person taking the test, I had the supervisor's office to write in, and since he had never heard of the LSAT and had only a moderate grasp of English, it fell to me to read the Supervisor's Manual and assist him in filling out the necessary paperwork and keeping me in line. It took me about four hours to write the LSAT and the writing sample, including a 15-minute break, and for the most part it sailed by.

So, now all I have to do is wait until January to get my results. Oh, and this is Phase Two because Phase One was submitting my application to law school, which I did in September.

Filling In Space

This is going to be a blog, I hope. I have applied to law school, and I'm hoping to get in. We are also leaving Peru in a few weeks (gasp), and so the Peru blog will be coming to a close. This, I hope, will be its replacement.