17 students representing just about every college at UTA joined Interim Dean Gustafson and Dr. Karl Petruso on an 18-day trip to Scotland for the annual Honors College study abroad program.

The tour started in Edinburgh, where the group spent four days acquainting themselves with the Scottish capital, cuisine (haggis, sticky toffee pudding), and dialect. Then they headed north to Aberdeen, Inverness, and ultimately the Orkney Islands, where they encountered neolithic sites and Pictish monuments up to 5,000 years old.

Traveling back from the islands, the group stayed near Loch Ness (no sightings of the monster were reported), then went to Stirling and Glasgow before heading to Edinburgh for final classes and the chance to pick up souvenirs before returning to Texas.

Students learned to appreciate “changeable” weather. Despite many cold and rainy days, the professors gave lectures in the open air and even once over the strains of a bagpipe. The two courses focused on the archaeology of Scotland, from the Stone Age to the Vikings, and the literature of Scotland from the eighth century to the present. The Honors study abroad program emphasizes experiential learning, and students not only read literature about Scotland but also wrote poetry about their own experience in the country.

According to Dr. Gustafson, the Honors College has offered approximately 15 study abroad programs over the years. He hopes the 2018 program will venture somewhere in the Western Hemisphere.