While I eat this quinoa.

Greetings. Welcome to my blog. My name is Jacob Aaron Mark (JAM). I go by Jacob. I'm the guy with the glasses and the beard- one of them maybe. I am a Jew. I am a Sophomore from Indianapolis, IN. This is my first semester in Bloomington, and I'm really excited to be here! Last year I attended DePauw University in Greencastle, IN. I had a great experience there, but after a year I was ready to make a change. I took last semester off to work for the Utah Conservation Corps (link to site if curious).  This too was a wonderfully enriching, transformative experience. I am glad to be back in the classroom again, although we'll see where my head is in two weeks!

Hmmm. A little about me. The only place outside of the country I have been to is France. If you ever go there, go to the south. It's beautiful - people and landscape. I am a very curious person, so you will notice that I ask more questions than I answer- or maybe it's vice verca. Who knows? There are some settings where I talk a lot and others where I don't, some where I'm shy and some where I'm outgoing. You never really know. I am a consistently inconsistent person.  I am known to take very random details out of a story; I place value on things with seemingly no importance. My opinion changes often and rarely - easily convincing and easily convinced.  I really like cats and dogs. Any kind of pit bull, really. I like walking- sometimes on beaches, but I don't like salt water. Why do people like salt water? It's water with salt in it. Ughh. You might as well fill a bath with salt in it! And who would do that?

I am excited to be in this class. It was only recently that I allowed myself to be open and exposed to the complexity of Israel/Palestine. There exists many people with many needs, and for peaceful coexistence to occur nothing can be ignored. This is a topic that needs to have a dialogue, and I hope we find a collective way to bring our discussions beyond this class - through forums, panels, debates, speakers, etc - regardless of what our individual stances are. Our interests and enthusiasms can spark fires of knowledge, interest, and curiosity for the multiple truths that exist side by side.

 I look forward to learning about you guys and sharing with you myself along the way.