Blossoming connections
Hello there! 👋
Yesterday my wife and I took a walk to the local park to see the early blooming cherry blossoms. 🌸🌸🌸 The clouds of winter had retreated and the spring blue sky provided the perfect backdrop for bright photos of flowers. At the park we ran into some neighbours walking their dog, and another neighbour family giving their small children a run in the sun. This month marks one year since we moved into our house. Randomly running into locals while out and about is good progress towards integrating into the community.
Sitting on the bench under the cherry blossoms — which have only just started shedding some petals to the ground — my wife and I reminisced on a long life together. Last month was our 20th anniversary, and we have been together for 26 years.
Earlier in the day we finished the finale of the multigenerational Korean Drama Reply 1988, which tracks the story of four families living in a small neighbourhood in Seoul, watching the children grow together and the parents age together. It is a delightful series that really nails anemoia — “nostalgia for a time or place one has never known.”
And so from under the cherry blossoms we watched our neighbours and their children play in the park.
During spring break we hosted visitors from our old community of Kelowna. We still have close ties there, and visit a couple times a year. My daughter’s oldest friend from elementary school in Kelowna stayed over for a sleepover. My oldest friend (also from elementary school!) brought his family over from where they live in Kelowna to see our house. It is nice to have visitors from out of town, and all my friends in Vancouver city properly. But there is something to be said for close geographic ties, for friends that can come over without planning a day trip to share food or even just a cup of tea.
Our experience moving around a lot shows it takes about 1~3 years once you move to a new place to really feel part of the community. I feel like we are well on our way.
If you are every near my neighbourhood, let me know and I will invite you over to share tea, laughs, and memories.
Take care,
— Chad
🖋 From the Blog
Engaged Buddhism message
Doug has had enough of this administration! 👏
“exilic design [is] the act of knowingly building within the Para-Real… protecting our own memory through deliberate fragility.”
NDC are back!
AAS conference report
Went to my first Association of Asian Studies… saw heroes… felt sad?
Back from ATmosphere Conf 2026
Quick note of thanks to all involved. More to come!
🧭 Elsewhere
🖨️ The Gutenberg revolution took a bit Video →
🌊 On March 11th I reposted some travelogues for the 15th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Part 1 → and Part 2 →
💂 Hari Kunzru takes a psycho-geographical tour of London. Absolutely gorgeous writing Link →
🔥 Being burned by my children… as usual Link →
🍀 Zohran does it again for St Patrick’s Day Link →
📖 What I’m Reading
Hawksmoore by Peter Ackroyd
(53% Complete)
And so let us beginne; and, as the Fabrick takes its Shape in front of you, alwaies keep the Structure intirely in Mind as you inscribe it.
That is the opening line of the book. When I finished the first chapter, written in an 18th-century style of English like the diary of Samuel Pepys with its crazy capitalization and unorthodox orthography as you can see above, I was like “I don’t think I can read this…” But I pushed on. And I am glad I did. At halfway through this book is a masterpiece of writing. Challenging, yes, but an inspired and rare piece of craft. I picked it up after having some deep conversations with Claude about book recommendations and the sort of psycho-geographic novels that could help me unlock a bit more of London before I go again in a couple of weeks. So far Hawksmoor has been a great introduction, as well as a super-spooky occult tale.
2026 is the year I leave GoodReads. Since January I have been using 📘 Hardcover which has been a delight. Connect with me there: https://hardcover.app/@chadkoh