That Girl from Derwent dwells on the value of religion this Christmas.
That Girl from Derwent has learned a few more things about prejudice since moving up North.
That Girl From Derwent reckons if you're going to be offensive, you should find a better reason.
That Girl from Derwent considers why it is that some words have wider implications than others.
Some consider school to be almost the exact definition of the good-old-days, although whoever decided that a few hundred adolescent hormone-bombs desperately trying to achieve unreasonable numbers of unreasonable GCSE grades was the stuff of ‘the best days of your life’ was either a gifted child, or had an abnormally negative experience of adulthood. While at the time most people I knew considered it a horrible experience, many of the same people look back on it with blurry, rose-tinted fondness.
The most prominent of these memories are out of the ordinary events, including that equally anticipated and hated experience, the school trip.
...an extra factor is introduced into the dangerous mix of general liveliness and team-spirit: alcohol.
Most school trips I remember involved traipsing around fields, sensible walking boots coated in mud while the stiletto-wearing, ‘popular’ girls hobbled around squealing about the dirt on their outfits and the barbarity of the whole experience.
During my last school trip one fifteen year old boy drank so much Red Bull that he tried to burrow out of the coach. Luckily he had neither tools nor long nails so it wasn’t hard to stop him. On another trip, an over-enthusiastic lad managed to high-kick his shoe into the English Channel. Now, in addition to the boundless energy seen in some people throughout their lives, an extra factor is introduced into the dangerous mix of general liveliness and team-spirit: alcohol.
Mud is expected and accepted on most trips from university. If you aren’t on a sports trip that will involve grass or gravel, then chances are you have a hike or an archaeological dig at the end of the cramped coach journey. Luckily for me, having not been brave enough to consider a job in archaeology, the worst thing I have to handle is travelling with certain sports teams. Often there is so much bravado, excitement and alcohol in some teams that they forget everything; from public decency laws, to which direction to urinate in when they stop the coach at the side of the motorway.
The tendency of the male rugby teams to disrobe as soon as they get on a coach can be caused by either booze or bravado, or (most usually) a combination of the two. The whole process leaves me partly horrified, partly curious, and very concerned about skid marks. Remember the next time you get on any transport with somebody from a rugby team, those brown smudges may not be mud from their last match.
The most dramatic contrasts are seen in overnight trips, the biggest overnight sports trip being, of course, Roses. I think most people who went to Lancaster last year encountered at least one naked or near-naked drunken rugby player staggering between sleeping bags, murmuring about the attractiveness of the netball players and smearing things on his team mates. A far cry from the days of not mixing male and female, when merely being found in the room of a member of the opposite sex meant disciplinary action - and not the kinky kind.
Group trips at both stages of life have their good and bad sides. The main thing about university trips, especially on the way to or from a sports event, is that if you get involved with the team, join in the atmosphere and have a drink then you’ll have a great time on the coach. However, if you’re like me and want nothing more than to sleep on your way back from your exhausting day elsewhere, then you’ll need to take some earplugs because your energetic and spirited co-travellers will want to make you hear the fun they're having.
I suppose the main difference between school and now in nearly every respect is the idea of choice. You can choose not to get on the coach if you really wanted, whereas in school you either got on the thing or faced the wrath of whoever was responsible for you. At least at this stage of life you can choose to avoid the post-trip celebrations by sneaking off and jumping on a train home instead of rejoining the naked bus.
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