students being students and kimchi mandu

I went through a bit more Sunday night dread than usual last Sunday, because Monday was the last day to change grades, and the first day I had classes after submitting students' grades. Naturally some students were unhappy. Essentially because they had less than an A+ and wanted to grill me as to exactly how that was possible. I didn't really consider a B+ a bad grade, but now I know better.

And as for my plagiarizing students, two I worked out deals with so that they wouldn't fail. They were the only 2 of the 5 that I considered doing that for, since they at least put in some of their own work and didn't copy 95%+ of their paper. They had to redo their papers, plus present them. Extra work for them for causing extra work for me. But of the other 3, only one even bothered to talk to me and his response was "I didn't know". And since I didn't hear from the other two (one didn't come to class, the other came to class but said nothing) I asked the English department handler (since she called them) what their response had been. And she told me they said they didn't even remember what they wrote, but they all said they would talk to me. Maybe failing the midterm isn't as big of a deal as getting a B+ instead of an A+?

And in more university fun times, so far I've gotten 4 school stamped and approved notes for absences. Of those 4, 1 is for a student missing class because of a car accident and hospital stay. The other 3 are for menstruation.

And in food news, while biking with Laurier on our glorious 8 hour break on Tuesday, we found a bibimguksu restaurant!

The food was delicious and the prices were cheap (for Chungju, it's slightly more expensive here)! Bibimguksu was 4,000 or under $4 and kimchi mandu was 2,500 won or under $2.50. It came egg less and premixed (Jeju style?), but the gochu jang, pepper paste sauce was perfect, and that's what really makes it or breaks it.

And best of all the kimchi mandu was vegetarian! It came steamed with kimchi, tofu and noodles inside. Accompanied by kimchi and radish sides and a soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper dipping sauce. I already dropped by again for a redo of the mandu. This is my new bibimguksu go to place in Chungju.

Both times I was there, the guy was constantly doing deliveries, so it's definitely a popular place.

And since it's going to be my birthday soon (next Tuesday!) I got a nice package from my mom recently of foods that I miss, peanut butter cups, licorice, sour gummy berries and jello pudding. I don't miss coffee crisp, that's just a Canadian delicacy...