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Returning to St. Scholastica's College as a teacher has never been part of my plans. After taking STRAMA under Prof. Elfren Cruz and earning my MBA degree, I had this sudden urge to teach. Maybe it's because I helped him check term papers and somehow found out that I liked it. I have a professor friend who was looking for part-time faculty early this year and even if I was qualified and the department head was ready to hire me, I had a trip that could not be rescheduled during the start of the term so it did not work out.

Fortunately, I was called back a few weeks ago as one of the faculty had to go on leave and asked me to replace her. So I went back to make a demo lecture and was hired. I returned today to fix my requirements, get some reading materials and have a last minute talk with the leaving professor.

While waiting, I walked around and re-familiarized myself with the surroundings that I called home for 11 years.



The above picture is inside the chapel where we held countless masses and where we even had our First Communion. While I was saying my prayer (and taking this picture), there was a choir that was practicing and I stayed a bit to listen to their beautiful voices. If it wasn't for the overpowering smell of incense (or some chemical), I would've stayed longer but I did not want to pass out so I left and walked around some more.



The college building is fronting the field. We had our field demonstrations on this open piece of land and I could still remember when we were in Grade 3 (or was that Grade 4) where we danced in ruffles while playing the maracas (the name of the song escapes me right now. I hope someone can enlighten me) and I think we had fruits on our heads too.

The building on the left is the newly built St. Cecilia's Hall. I think they tore down the whole building which housed the auditorium where we had our "Linggo ng Wika" celebrations and if I remember it right, Miriam Defensor-Santiago also had a talk there (I think that was when she was running for President. Oh my, I'm old!). The College library is also in that building and I was there earlier to borrow some books for my class. I'm impressed with their library and I'm looking forward to spending some time there.

The middle building is the canteen. I can still remember when we can return Coke bottles for the deposit. And my favorite food back then was cheesepie with ice cream! :) And the arroz caldo too! I can still remember how yummy it smelled.

I'm looking forward to revisit my roots and see what has changed and what has remained the same. I'll be posting more pictures and would probably reminisce more.