This morning, we had to meet at 8 o’clock to catch the public bus to the Black Country Living Museum. To our surprise, the bus was about to leave right as we all got outside of the hotel. We had to run to catch it, but all of us successfully made it on. Once we got off of the bus, we had a short walk and then finally arrived at the museum.
When we first arrived, we got headed right to the mines for a tour. We were welcomed to our 12 hour shift and then headed right down! We went in groups of 4, with only one flashlight per group. It was extremely dark when we first entered the mines, and the ceilings were very low, so we were lucky to have our handy dandy hard hats to keep our heads safe from bumping into them. We saw a lot of different mannequins that modeled the coal mine workers; one of them was even supposed to represent a twelve year old boy. He would have been in charge of opening the doors to let the donkeys through the mines. We also saw the donkey statue before heading even deeper down.
We learned about the different types of coal mining, and the specific risks that come with each one. While all of them seemed quite dangerous, one that was specifically unsafe was reserved for only the most skilled miners. Taking down the ceiling was extra dangerous because if they were not careful, they could either fall off of the ladder or worse, have the coal falling down onto other minors, killing them almost immediately.
We also got to attend a school lesson with a very, very strict teacher. He scolded the members of our group who either had tattoos or were wearing nail polish. He had us recite the alphabet backwards multiple times, as well as our two and three times tables.
After the lesson, we explored more of Black Country, and stumbled upon a fair! We rode the haunted house and the swings, which were both so much fun! The haunted house was actually much scarier than expected. We played some of the carnival games as well. I was quite horrible at them, but Malina won some prizes!
We left the museum and got back onto the public bus. We had some trouble with our tickets, but all was resolved. This bus ride was very tiring. My phone was quickly losing battery, I was hungry, thirsty, and the bus was so hot. This bus took us a much longer way than the first one, and once we finally got off, it was so amazing.
Once we got back to the hotel, we broke for a free afternoon and night. My roommate Lauryn and I found out that Olivia Rodrigo was performing in Birmingham tonight, so we just had to try to get tickets. It was not looking good for us as all of the tickets left on Ticketmaster were so expensive.
Our last resort was the box office. We headed over to the arena, which was only about a 9 minute walk away from our hotel. There was zero line for the box office, so I was a little nervous that they wouldn’t have any tickets left, but they offered us floor seats for a reasonable price, so obviously we bought the tickets and quickly ran to change! The concert was absolutely AMAZING! Olivia Rodrigo puts on an amazing show and she truly does not have a single bad song. The concert was so much fun and I’m so glad we decided to go!