October 3, 2008: Brenden Zeni '94 dropped by for lunch today. Brenden is in Singapore on a three month job-swap with the American Express office in Singapore. Brenden took advantage of the opportunity as a way to return to Singapore after 14 years away.
He and his wife Diana enjoyed every minute of their three months, travelling throughout the region almost every weekend. They did manage to catch one football Saturday, but unfortunately missed the excitement of the Homecoming game on September 26 due to their busy travel schedule. Brenden was an SAS athlete, and remembered fondly all the busy weekends at SAS with the rest of the American community. While on campus, he stopped in to talk to Mr. Shriner, who was teaching a weightlifting class. They had a great time catching up!
Another teacher thrilled to see Brenden was Mrs. Linda Clarke, who taught Brenden Accounting I and II in the days pre-computer! Since Mrs. Clarke's class, Brenden has gone on to earn his CPA and an MBA in Finance. He attributes his interest in accounting and finance to Mrs. Clarke's class, and said his first two years at Virginia Tech were mostly review! The other students looked to him for help with their homework because of his solid backing of the fundamentals at SAS.
Brenden was excited to return to Singapore and sample all his favorite foods he remembered from his high school years. We stopped by Mr. Ho's cafeteria for some Sichuan chicken, and ran into Josh Nobles '99, who always admired Brenden's football skills in high school. Brenden was a year older than Josh's brother Jake, who is now working in Thailand. Josh was headed to Korea this week to coach the All-Star team in their annual game against the DOD schools, which both Brenden and Josh remembered from their time playing football.
It was a good day of catching up and reminiscing. Big thanks to Brenden to stopping by before heading home to the New Jersey winter!
October 16, 2008: Today we met Sally (Seung Eun) Lee, '99. Sally was in town to visit her favorite Singapore haunts before her parents move back to Korea. Sally has been lucky enough to visit Singapore occasionally from her new home in Chicago, because her parents continued to live in Singapore after her graduation from SAS. In Chicago, Sally works as an engineer for GE. She was too quick for us, and we didn't manage to get a photo of her before she rushed off to check out the new high school and meet with her former teachers Dr. Kett and Mrs. Melsom. Thanks for stopping by Sally!
When it rains it pours at SAS! Only minutes after Sally went to visit the high school, Russ Ng '67 and his wife Constance dropped by on their way to a day trip to Malaysia. Russ and I are both fans of all the new TV series coming out of the US; I had just finished watching the creepy mystery series Dexter, and offered to lend it to him. He dropped by to pick up the DVD, and we had a chance to walk around all the new construction projects on campus, which he hadn't seen yet. We braved the heat to check out the completed two-level gym. We took a cool break in the air-conditioned climbing wall gym, where we watched the middle schoolers practicing their skills. We walked up the stairs, where we were rewarded with a great view over the construction of the Memory Garden, which is scheduled to open next month.
October 21, 2008: Samir Mowla '97 gave back to SAS today: He came to speak to the current students about his alma mater, Georgia Tech University. As Samir is a relatively recent Electrical Engineering graduate, and had visited the campus last year, he was very helpful to the 10+ students who came to visit him. He was surprised at the number of female students who were interested in GT. He thought it was valuable to offer his opinions of the GT experience from the student perspective, as he knew he didn't have to ‘sell' the university, and could give both the pros and cons for the students to consider. Samir is travelling a lot with his business development job, but has managed to fit in some fun as well—he recently returned from a trip to Hilton Head, where he attended Richard ‘97 and Kristen Miller ‘98's wedding, and he plans to enjoy the upcoming long weekend in Kinabalu, Malaysia, with fellow SAS alum Rhidoi Krishnakumar ‘97.
October 24, 2008: Justin Sumarta Mu '00 visited today. He's in Singapore for the long weekend to attend a family wedding. After living in California for years, he has recently returned to Jakarta to work for his family's business. We had a great time going through the old memory books. Justin attended SAS from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, so he was a great source of stories and memories about the teachers and students in the photos. 
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SAS Alum and her dance company performing in Chameleon