Dr. Dracula

I was flipping through an old copy of Reader's Digest and I saw that all RD mags have some sections where the readers share some funny stories, or stuffs that happened to them sometime in their lives, and I thought I'd share some of my funny stories here on this blog. Sharing is caring, right? Some happened to me directly, some happened to my friends, and some are stuffs I heard happening from other people. Thus two new post categories are created: Anecdotes will be the funny stories, and Way Back When is just some recollections in general. At times, I'll combine two categories in one post.

By Cryptia on Flickr

Year: First Year in KSMU (2003)

It was zachut-collecting season before the end of the year final exams. To those who are not studying in Russia, zachut is equivalent to 'credits', and to prove that we are cleared for all subjects to sit for exams we would have to collect our teachers' signatures as a sign of approval from them for us to sit for exams. The teachers will have to sign our credit books. If we have any debts in terms of missed classes or tests, we are required to complete them first before going to exams. So let's say that we have 10 subjects that year, that means 10 signatures to be collected. Over the years, the rules have been relaxed a bit, meaning that we only have to collect signatures for the subjects we are sitting for exams and the subjects that we're learning for that particular semester only. But way back when I was in first year, we were required to collect ALL signatures. ~sigh~... time-wasting, but it's the tradition here. They don't have centralized computerized system where teachers can just key in our details and status for sitting the exams, so we do it the old school way. Eventually we got used to it.

Anyway, there was one doctor teaching us in a subject which I shall refrain from mentioning. Don't want to get caught gossiping! Heheh. Let's just call her Dr. L. At that same time as we were moving about around the universities seeking for our teachers' signatures, Dr. L was busy in a blood drive program which she was spearheading (if I am not mistaken). However, she probably couldn't get enough participants and that didn't bode well with her. Then she saw us foreign students, and probably thought that all of us must have clean blood (meaning we don't have HIV or any other diseases transmitted by blood - because if we have those we wouldn't be there in the first place).

I guess she saw an opportunity....



In class, she unceremoniously announced to us foreign students that whoever have debts in her subject, will be cleared if they participate in her blood drive program. No matter how many debts they had.

In other words: "YOUR BLOOD FOR MY SIGNATURE, MUAHAHAHAA!!"

It was an opportunity many seized instantly. So it was a win-win situation for both teacher and students, right? Heheheh. The teacher was pretty smart though. I guess she got all the blood she needed. Everyone's happy. For your information, I did not take part in it - I managed to clear my debt before she made that announcement.

The following year, I've overheard this conversation between two students.

A: So, which teacher you're getting?
B: Dr. L.
A: Oh! Dracula!

LOL!