I, junior student, will not be going abroad. I thought about it, I looked at some pamphlets, then I remembered that despite my grumbling I actually love being at this goddamn school so goddamn much that I wish our spring break were shorter, so I’m not gonna miss a semester if i don’t have to.

Still, I thought I might hear about people’s foreign adventures and feel a natural twinge of jealousy. I expected this from my Instagram feed and from that one girl who immediately found a hot Italian boyfriend. But never, never did I expect it from my own father.

As I sit here freezing under four layers in New Side, trying to write this article but actually eavesdropping on a girl explaining her high school teacher’s sexual misconduct, my dad is having his own life-changing semester abroad in sunny Tuscany.

He’s an art professor, and this semester he’s accompanying his students to the idyllic town of Prato, Italy, where his university has a satellite campus.

He is having the time of his life. 

Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself all the updates he’s been sending the family WhatsApp. (His students’ faces have been censored to protect their privacy.)

Here’s him and his students on the Ponte Vecchio.

And his head at the Santa Maria del Fiore.

Here he enjoyed a breakfast that’s #travelgoals.

And here he got caught by the paparazzi. 

This is from the day he couldn’t find running shorts in that medieval town.

But he improvised!

He’s been making new friends.

And eating lots of delicious Italian food.

He was in a parade (?!?)

And he met the mayor (??!?!?)

I asked, and he hasn’t learned any Italian. But he’s learned about himself.

He loves it so much, he wants to extend through next semester. Which sounds great to me, because I’ll have two long weeks of spring break to visit.

Obviously I’m very happy for him, and I’m still glad I get to be at Kenyon all year. To all of you studying abroad in Italy, say hi to my dad for me.