back Turkey and Austria

Hi friends,
Just wanted to let you know that I returned from Turkey and Austria yesterday, and just spent a lovely half-hour reading through all the posts and comments that I missed while I was gone. Congratulations to Beth and Josh (wonderful photos! I would love an update on the wedding sometime), Stelios for his inspiring career accomplishments, TT for her amazing defense... I'm certain to be missing something even though I literally just read all the updates... well, and to the rest of you bloggers for your general fabulousness. :)
The trip was good-- I learned a lot and collected some specimens that will help with my postdoctoral research (assuming that I'm successful in sequencing them)-- and also very hard-- physically demanding, conflict of personalities, food poisoning... I DID take a camera for once, and will upload pictures and share stories once my uncle finds his card reader for the camera I borrowed from him. I did absolutely nothing touristy other than see the Hagia Sofia during my 12 hour layover in Istanbul. And I also joined a 'bioblitz' sort of affair at a national park in the alps of Austria, so I got to do some hiking while collecting. Other than that, my trip went like this: either, 1. wake at 6:30, eat breakfast, gather collecting gear, ride in a car around to various country roadsides that had promising flowers in bloom (while praying a bit-- the driver was relearning manual transmission cars and the driving was generally crazy), do this all day except to stop every few hours for a very strong, bitter tea (no lunch stop-- just crushed chips and cherry juice-- did I mention personality conflicts?), return to hotel around 7, shower, eat dinner at 8, collapse into bed around 10. Or, 2. wake at 6:30, eat breakfast, walk to museum or our host's collection, study bees, eat lunch, study bees, eat dinner, walk home, collapse into bed. This we did for an entire month, every day, including weekends... I am VERY glad to be home.