你好! or hi! My name is Yutong, but feel free to call me Taylor. I'm a '27 from Beijing, China. This will be my first time living ten thousand miles away from home and my first time embracing the New England winter, which makes everything more exciting! I'm also a big fan of Dartmouth Outing Club, and you can find me canoeing in the Connecticut River or taking a walk at Pine Park. I can't wait to show you my college life with my blogs!
Coming to Dartmouth with a solid background in French (Delf B2), I find French 3 a perfect fit for me -- it helps me to consolidate a lot of key grammar and vocabs, and fun weekly cultural activities like coffee hours and french lunch table offers me chances to relax in busy times. While the class is very rigorous and requires a lot of hard work, my professor is so nice and makes the class very fun! I also look forward to going to Dartmouth's Toulouse LSA program after completion of this class!
This course explores how Buddhist concepts of embodiment affect daily life and society in Southeast Asian contexts, and how the intersection of religion, sexuality, and gender impact broader understandings of authority, wisdom, beauty, death, and loyalty. The class takes on many forms beyond mere lectures -- a visit to the Hood Museum of Art, mindfulness practices, and small Buddha-crafting projects. Our professor (the sweetest Prof. MK Long) also invites many of her colleagues at other institutes as guest lecturers to our class so that we can learn from real experts specializing in different countries in Southeast Asia. I have learned a lot from the class and decided to become a religion major after this course!
Having never enjoyed math classes before college, I'm surprised (again) by how I'm becoming a math major and falling in love with math here! My professor (Prof. Shu Longmei, who graduated from the best university in my hometown) is incredibly good at teaching the concepts -- not just explaining things clearly but also showing us the beauty and elegance of calculus. I really look forward to taking more math classes in the future!
With the end of winter term, I am finally back to engaging in the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) activities! I have always been a huge fan of the DOC, and I have been to the Ledyard Canoe Club's (a subclub of the DOC) multiple rowing activities in the fall. After the winter term ended, I was itching to get back to the rugged beauty that defines our campus. This time, I signed up for a hike with the Cabins and Trails sub club to Lonesome Lake.
A beautiful photo of a river and snow and pines
A beautiful waterfall in the woods
Standing amidst the tranquil beauty of our natural surroundings, I couldn't help but reflect on the profound connection we share with the land. As I stood in the very spot where Henry David Thoreau once stood, witnessing the cascade of water into the granite bowl, his words echoed in my mind. Thoreau wrote in his journal, "this is perhaps the most remarkable curiosity of its kind in New England." Though my literary prowess may pale in comparison, I felt an undeniable kinship with his appreciation for the sublime beauty of nature as I sat on a big stone in the middle of a small waterfall, breathing the forest air and feeling the fresh breeze blowing across my hair.
Selfie with friends
For someone who used to and continues to find solace in nature and the wilderness, I feel incredibly grateful and fortunate that Dartmouth provides me with this natural splendor that I have always longed for. The DOC and natural resources here are unparalleled, and our 115-year-old outing club organizes FREE outdoors trips of all types including canoeing, hiking, and mountain biking, all with various difficulty levels. I have been constantly making new friends through my participation with the Dartmouth Outing Club, and with spring around the corner, I'm excited to share with you more of my hiking stories!
It's easy to forget how easy it is to access walking trails during the hustle of a Dartmouth term. As graduation nears, I am reminded of how special it is to step off campus and enjoy quiet moments in nature.
With a solar eclipse sweeping across North America for the first time in nearly seven years on April 8th came a road-trip with hundreds of other Dartmouth students to a zone of totality near campus: St. Johnsbury, Vermont!
After returning from an enriching study abroad program, I'm diving into a bustling spring semester here at Dartmouth. Here are my four courses I'm taking this term!
