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!
As my first year at Dartmouth winds down, I've decided to make the most of campus life before heading home for the summer. The fast-paced quarter system usually has us rushing from class to class, sticking to the same old familiar study spots. Craving for a change and a dose of creativity, I've started to explore some of the exciting and unique activities our campus has to offer.
Recently, I visited the Book Arts Workshop during its Open Studio sessions with my friend Diana, a senior and a blogger for "People Places Pines" (check out her posts here!).
Some pretty posters at the Book Arts Workshop
Located in the lower level of Baker Library, the workshop offers a space where students, faculty, and community members can dive into the arts of bookbinding, printing, and typography. With some time on our hands, Diana and I decided to make some fun collage pinback buttons with our own designs.
The pinback button that I made (we spent half an hour chatting and it took us less than five minutes to actually make the buttons!)
Visiting the Book Arts Workshop for the first time, I was struck by the breadth of creative expression it facilitated. This space isn't just about learning the mechanics of printing or binding but about making art accessible and personal. Here, students channel their creativity into a diverse array of projects—from activist messages and simple pinback buttons to professionally printed postcards and elegantly bound hardcover books.
The workshop also serves as an inventive hub for academic projects. Many students choose to create final class projects here, such as concertina-bound photo books, letterpress posters, and hand-bound volumes (check out more of them here). Overall, the Book Arts Workshop is the ideal place for anyone eager to step out of their routine and experiment with something fresh.
As it approaches the end of spring term and the finale to my freshman year at Dartmouth, I am reflective of the goals I made for myself each term and how I've accomplished them.
Green Key is one of Dartmouth's major spring festivities, bringing two popular music artists to our Gold Coast Lawn. My weekend was filled with friends and fun!
I lived on the same dorm floor as the GIS LLC (Living Learning Community) this year. I asked some of my floormates about their experience with it so that you can hopefully get a holistic sense of what GIS is like!
