In the Sunday Times last week the reality TV star Gemma Collins, wrote of her experiences aged 12 when she went away with Theatretrain to perform in the Czech Republic.
She explained it as the shock of her life and remembered saying, “Get me out of here it’s disgusting.” She said the sink fell off the wall and there was an awful orange and brown carpet and the food was indescribably bad.”
Now I’ve always had a regard for Gemma ever since she was a pupil because she is a one-off. You either like her or loath her and she’s ok with that.
She is what she is and always has been and speaks her mind with no filter. The media love her because she can be funny, controversial and shocking all at the same time and what you see is what you get.
But I think she missed the point. She described it as a holiday but it wasn’t – it was a theatre trip to another country and we were the guests of a little Czech town where I don’t think they had ever hosted an international event before.
When you go on such a trip – and over the years we have done many – you don’t go as a tourist – you go as a traveller and you experience another country different to your own.
What she was experiencing was a culture shock. Finding another country’s life, culture and food different from your own can be eye-opening.
Then you have two choices. You can see it as an experience, learn about other people and expand your thinking or you can close down on it and condemn it for not being like home. But that’s the point.
They say travel broadens the mind but if you expect it to be like home you’ve lost something. If you go to Spain and insist on eating British food you are shutting off the possibility of a different life.
It challenges you at a deeper level and shakes you up a bit and I think that’s good for you. New experiences may not always meet your expectations but they add to your understanding if you let them.
Back to Gemma – so there she and her mother were with the biggest suitcase and they simply booked into a hotel. But I still know some of those fellow travellers and although they might have agreed with her about the décor, the food, the surroundings and especially the language they just got on with it. Some of them tell me today that it helped them know themselves better and, in that way, it was a great experience for them – travel did broaden their mind.
