I did not have very much background on Turkish history or the Turkish people, and one of the things I have gotten a great appreciation for just this week is the complexity of Turkish society with the long history that has made Turkey what it is today it strikes me as being much more subtle than much Americans would realize, and I have been struck in just the short amount of time where so much has been accomplished. We visited many schools, a hospital, institutions in the media and just the level of activity and vitality I think has been very impressive and I think in America, groups that want to accomplish great things and would like to promote particular missions would learn a lot from what we've seen here.

I have to say that my favorite part of being in Turkey is the people and meeting people and becoming friends with people from Turkey. Turkey is a very important partner for the United States and considered a great friend, and for me, working in government on foreign policy issues, it was very important to understand Turkey better so that I can do my job better, and hopefully help the United States do its job better.

The US is a secular State just the way Turkey is a secular State and there is a constant tension between Church and State in the United States and when it comes to school, many of our schools are religiously run and there are many questions about how they run, about how much they should be run, and seeing how it is run in Turkey was real eye opener for me . . . these are delicate balances and I think some of the biggest challenges that many modern societies are now facing, so I felt a lot of kinship with the issues and learned a lot, and came away with a lot of respect for the developments that are happening in Turkey.

This is my second time in Turkey and I must echo the sentiments of my travel partners that you all are the friendliest people I have ever come in contact with and it is here, although I have traveled all over the world, that I feel the most safe. I never felt threatened or that I would be taken advantage of or that anything was going to happen to me, and I think that this is important considering the world we are currently living in.

My name is Aaron Ellen. I am a network engineer and I live in Northern Virginia.  I am originally from Michigan. I have been to Turkey before, only to Istanbul, but I have to tell you the difference between this trip and the trip I took before is night and day.

My name is Kristine Urban, and I am a Political Science Professor at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg Maryland.  This has been a very exciting tour for me in a number of respects in a professional sense. I teach in the area of international relations and Middle-East studies.

I am Nelle Temple Brown. I work for the World Health Organization as the liaison officer for Washington DC, and I live in Falls Church Virginia.  It has been a great joy and a delight in both in the lightness of the life and good humor that we had in our group. It has been enjoyable to be part of the group from the first time in the morning until at night when we were all falling asleep in our seats in the bus.  We had such a good spirit among us; you know, it has been a wonderful to travel with this group of people, especially with Ali and Sumeyra.

My grandmother had been studying world religions, and one of her favorites was Rumi. One day we had read her and my favorite poem from Mathnawi, I asked her: Could we go visit where he was from? She said no, because, Balkh has been destroyed, but that his tomb was in Turkey, so I asked if we could go and visit it.