Back to CHS!

I went back to Catholic High School, my former secondary school, on Monday with NinjaLZG. It is still at the same location and looked the same from afar. Approaching from outside, the first difference I noticed was that the walls had murals (more of giant photographs) on them, highlighting the various CCAs in the school. Neat.

But the real shock comes when I entered. Yeah, the buildings did not change much (I know there was a major renovation some time after I left), but there was quite a copious amount of landscaping added to it.


(Please don't ask why water only flows on one side. I mean, after spending so much on landscaping...)

The areas outside the chemistry labs used to be just grass. Most of them were struggling to survive (in fact, for some unidentified reason, most of the grass during my time seem to have poor survivability. There weren't even trees as far as I can remember. But now, look at it:



After chatting up with a few staff that survived the Dark Ages (don't ask), we went around to survey the rest of the school. The rooms were more or less in the same location, but there were now more stairs, and a hell lot more greenery:


Why, there's even a mini-waterfall!


Now, look at the new hall:

Yeah, it may be smaller (because there are two now - one for the secondary side and one for the primary side) but hey, it's air-conditioned! I still remember those days of hot, stuffy assembly talks that I dare to wager no more than 10% of the audience were listening. And of course, the façade looks more aesthetic as compared to the standard rectangular that I was used to.

In case you're wondering what's that on top of the flight of stairs...

... it's a... erm... sculpture?... to commemorate the school's sporting achievements. The words there read "TOWARDS SPORTS EXCELLENCE". Personally, I find this sculpture a bit disturbing, since it seems to imply that the students perform until 断手断脚 (literally "break hand break leg", or meaning to be terribly injured).

Erm... anyway, the layout in this part of the school has changed much. The canteen moved down, the hall moved aside, and the Founder's Square shifted sideways! And it's no longer the red-tiled, orthogonally-patterned ground:


Heh, what a change! Anyway, it's quite nostalgic to be back there (especially not as a student... haha) and see those poor souls suffer their first day back in school. But it won't be long before I'm back there again, for 14th July is the Catholic High Music Awards, which I'll be attending! Till then!