"There always was an England"

Hello. I'm feeling great right now. I enjoyed the rest after my busy NYC trip in my proud and sympathetic home. The Geneva weather recently smoothed out, and before long I darted across the Channel to Summer school. In my humble opinion, the great strength of British education is not the actual results or research data it produces, which is often considerable, but rather the mindset it gives to those people priviledged to attend, a "Can-do" attitude so often prided by Americans, but reinforced by a communal sharing of information and cameraderie. Call it socialism or collusion, but the worlds issues are bigger than one person to figure out which was one reason why Oxbridge was founded in the first place, after the models of Sienna, Cairo, Alexandria and Athens and the inspiration for The Ivy League, Stanford, U. of Toronto, U. Sydney and many aspirants to the same.
I look forward to my month in the South, to study physics and also to see how much "Swinging London" is remembered in this storied country. All indications are that it will live up to the Capital City's lead.

Indulge me for a minute...

I want to post about a certain musical I've seen, Mamma Mia. As a student of song of my generation, ABBA's music seemed as uncool as it gets, their uncoolness transcending time and genre. The musical however, is a different experience. Two things had changed since previously I contemplated the group: I went on a trip to Mykonos, a Greek island, and secondly, I have changed, I dare not say matured. The first time I saw the show was in Madrid, in Spanish (at which I have the basics). I was thrilled yet embarassed. I was thrilled at the pagentry; embarrassed at the knowledge that I was now possibly as uncool as the disco affictionados of yesteryear.
The New York show was the better of the Spanish show visually, but I found the Spanish singing more suited to the lyrics and their meaning. I somehow picture the protagonist and her entourage speaking Greek (closer to Spanish than English) than the scripted English.