I’m home!  It’s especially nice to see my family, friends, and little birdie, Tashi.  She is pictured here, on the left. As you can see, she is happy to see me also.  🙂

The journey was long.  I left my hotel in Istanbul at 9 am this morning, and now it is 9 pm in Massachusetts.  The trip was much longer than 12 hours though, because I had a layover in Germany and there is a 7 hour time difference between Turkey and here. So, it feels like 4 am to my body!  Luckily, I have Sunday to work on recovering from my jet lag. I also had some good travel luck today: a) I met a new Turkish friend at the airport in Istanbul who invited me to get free food in the VIP lounge, b) I got put on a plane with mini-TVs at each seat, which I didn’t have last time, so I got to watch two movies I’ve been wanting to see, and c) I had both a window and an aisle seat to myself because the plane wasn’t full.

In honor of being back and seeing my pet, I thought I’d post a video showing animals of Turkey (as requested by some students in comments).  Unfortunately, the parts of Turkey that I visited aren’t big for wild animals, so most of the animals you’ll see here are domesticated.  There are lots of dogs and cats on the streets, and I even ran into horses in some remote areas.  My favorite animal footage you can see here is the cat that wandered into the Hagia Sophia Mosque and sat in one of the exhibit areas.  I also like the seagulls, which follow the ferries because people throw bread off the sides for them.  None of the animals here will be totally new to you.  If you want to see exotic animals, I’ll have to post some footage from my trip to Southern Africa last summer.  That will have to be another time.  Speaking of “another time,” I plan to post a few more times about Turkey, so check back soon.  After that, the blog will continue, but posts will be less frequent.   However, I’ve enjoyed working to raise global awareness through this blog, so don’t say goodbye to “Innovation on Earth.”   Come back soon!