May 5, 2009: Brothers Paul Laveris '75 and Nick Laveris '79 visited today. It was Paul's first trip back to Singapore since 1971, and he was pleased to see that it was still the green jungle he remembered. Paul and Nick drove around Singapore and revisited their old haunts, such as the American Club, the Singapore Island Country Club and King's Road, where the campus they attended used to be. Coincidentally, Paul's childhood best friend, Cameron Cotton '75, is also in town this week, so they planned to see him and relive the old SAS middle school memories. Nick has been back to Singapore and Hong Kong many times in the past few years, and always enjoys visiting campus and marvelling at the great opportunities SAS students have. The brothers made a few videos of their tour around campus to show Paul's boys; we gave them our Flip camera, and they went to town! They show us their lunch and the high school swimming pool--you can enjoy their videos here.  

 

On May 15, two lovely ladies of the Class of 1998 dropped by: Jennifer Lee and Kaori Ikeda. Jennifer lives in Singapore and works in a family jewelry business,  occasionally designing pieces herself. She has recently worked on wedding bands for SAS alums. Kaori, who is half Australian, lives in Australia and works in neuroscience. The girls were happy to see several of their favorite teachers were still on campus, including Mrs. Melsom, whose class was dissecting cats when we walked by, Mr. Donalson and Mr. Adams, whom they captured on video. You can see his message to his former soccer teams here. Thanks for visiting girls!

 

 

On May 20, fresh from a 6am arrival into Changi that very morning, Abhinav Kaul '07 stopped by to see us and to pick up some good SAS alumni stuff! Abhinav lives in DC, where he is a rising junior at George Washington University, studying international affairs. He said he was sorry to miss this February's SAS alumni party at Singapore Bistro in DC, because it is only a few blocks from the GW campus! He's home in Singapore this summer, staying with his parents, who are still living in Singapore with his little brother, an SAS middle schooler. Abhinav is looking forward to a busy summer, interning with two companies in Singapore. Before he starts work on Monday, he was hoping to meet up with some SAS friends. After his busy summer, he'll stay closer to home and go off to study abroad in Shanghai, where he'll take 14 hours of Mandarin language lessons a week. We can't wait to hear about it, and hope he'll write an article for Journeys!

 

 

May 26: The alumni office was hopping this morning! First up, we walked in to find David McKenzie waiting for us--he had been on campus early to help his sister, a middle schooler, set up her class project. He dropped by to say hi on his way to visit high school teachers Frank and Karen Olah and later Mr. Coppell, his former running coach. David just finished his first year at college in Arizona. He's not sure what his major will be, but he'll be glad to get his general ed courses out of the way. He's finishing off a few credits when he heads back to Arizona for summer school. First, he's looking forward to an Alaskan cruise with his family. Glad you're doing well David, thanks for coming by!

 

May 28: It was the busiest day in the history of SAS alumni HQ today. We didn't just have one alumni visitor, we had FIVE alumni visitors, two of whom brought their new brides on honeymoon! First up was Kevin Ho '07, who is visiting Singapore this summer on a break from his film school in Orange County, California. Kevin will spend a few weeks in the UK, and then return to work on some film production with friends in Singapore. You can see links to his films on our alumni youtube channel. They are FANTASTIC. Kevin is known around SAS for his magic and playing card flourishes, and some of these are displayed in his videos on youtube.

 

As we were chatting, the alumni office received another visitor, Jimmy Stewart '73, who visited with helpful host Russ Ng '67 and Russ' wife Constance. Jimmy worked in Singapore from Feb 07-Feb 08, redesigning his childhood golf course, Singapore Island Country Club. Jimmy runs two golf courses in California, and has two children who are also interested in golf. Growing up in Singapore, Jimmy won several tournaments, and was featured in the press often. We plan to dig up all these articles and share them! Jimmy hadn't been up to visit the Woodlands campus yet, so Russ decided it was high time he pay a visit.

 

Jimmy visited his friend Teresa Sim, now HR Manager in the Central Administration Office. Standing outside Teresa's office, Jimmy had Teresa guess who he was by the sound of his voice, and lo and behold, she said, "I don't remember your name, but I know you were the golfer!" Which of course is exactly correct. Teresa has worked at SAS for 40 years, since she was a teenager, but she hadn't seen Jimmy since he was in high school. The two caught up on lots of history, and Jimmy marvelled that Teresa's laugh was exactly the same as it was 40 years ago.

 

Visiting in the afternoon was Bill Conn '93 and his new bride Monica. Bill and Monica had been honeymooning for two weeks in Phuket, and were swinging by Singapore for a quick visit before heading home to San Diego. Most of the Conn family lives in San Diego these days--Bill's parents (his dad was a board member at SAS) and his sisters Maggie '87 and Colleen '90. Bill and Monica met at work (they were both working for an energy company) and married six months ago. We're hoping they'll send us a wedding photo for the Dec 09 issue of Journeys. Bill and Monica dropped in to chat with Jim Baker, Michael Cox and Linda Clarke, who didn't have students in the afternoon because of final exams. We were a bit worried that Bill and Monica were lost on campus, because they were running around school for most of the afternoon! Bill told us that he took some video footage on his digital camera, so if he sends that to us, we'll post it on the SAS alumni youtube channel.

 

Phew, there was one more today...right at the tail end of the day (3:30pm for all of those who don't work in schools!), John Taylor '03 and his bride of nine days, Amanda, stopped in under the wise direction of Mr. Jim Diebley, middle school teacher. Mr. Diebley recommended that John sign up online so that he can stay connected to SAS, and share his marital happiness with his classmates, many of whom he keeps up with on facebook. John and Amanda had just returned from Bali, where they had spent some blissful days exploring Ubud and taking lots of photos. They were swinging by Singapore, which Amanda fell instantly in love with. Perhaps we'll see them back here for good soon? John and Amanda now live in Houston, where John works in the oil industry and Amanda works for a non-profit organizations benefitting Texas wildlife. Let us know if you need advice on coming back guys! It would be fun to have you in town!