Two years after I left, I finally made it back to Singapore last week.

My main reason for being there was to participate in the Empire in Asia project at NUS, but since I was in town, I also gave a talk at the Asian Civilizations Museum, and another at the Asia Research Institute.  For all you kids keeping score at home, that’s three different talks in one week. There’s just no shutting me up, apparently.

It was a strange feeling – the first night I was there, I had dinner with my friend Edith, her husband Lik (plus a new NUS postdoc) – exactly the same people and exactly the same place I had my last dinner there two years ago. That little coincidence was entirely unplanned, but it (and especially seeing the campus the next day) really drove home the point that I in fact spent more time in Singapore than anywhere else in my adult life.

It was really great to see old friends–here’s Letha and Kelly at lunch.

It was especially great to see the students from my last semester at NUS. Word got out that I was in town, and a few of us met for a six hour lunch (!).

A few days later a bigger crowd met up again for dinner. I was only disappointed that someone stood us up, but I ain’t naming Muniirahs, I mean names.