Today started with going to the Black Country Living Museum. I was already hooked when it mentioned the “living” part. I love real-life experiences and reenactments. We all headed to a mining experience when we arrived at the museum. This was fun and through the experience, we were put in the shoes of past minors and learned a little bit about their day-to-day shifts. They had 12-hour days down in the mines with almost complete darkness. They had lanterns to help them see the bits that were too dark. Children worked down in the mines and were forced to stay awake and wait to open doors for those who needed to carry their coal out of the mine. It was quite cold down in the mines and muddy as well. I could have never done a job like that.

After the coal mining experience, we went to a school to experience how a children’s school during this time was similar or different to ours now. This was fun and the teachers were typically very strict and expected much respect from their students. Punishments were put to punish students who misbehaved or spoke out of turn. A dress code was put in place and if you didn’t follow it, you would have been called out for it. a school dress code reminded me of the dress codes we have in America. Some schools don’t want their students to wear makeup or have painted nails.

After the school experience, we were free to roam and explore the museum in all its glory. I toured a few domestic houses and saw the layout of a typical home during this time. The houses were very small and sometimes only had 2 rooms to fit 10 people or more. Many shops resembled shops the miners and their families would go into and purchase necessities from. these shops were small but had everything you’d need. I enjoyed seeing these different places and reading the signs to learn more about them.

After the Black Country Living Museum, we headed back to our hotel and immediately got ready to go to the box office to purchase tickets for Olivia Rodrigo. We got so lucky that she happened to be performing in Birmingham at the same time we were studying abroad. Although the Black Country Living Museum was exciting, this was a tad more exciting. Tickets for the concert were available and I bought a ticket to go see her. My roommate and I got so lucky and quickly got ready to go to the show. Once we entered the building, we headed to buy merch. I got such a cute T-shirt. The food stands surprisingly have a much better assortment than American ones. I saw a vegan hotdog and as a pescatarian who misses eating hot dogs, I was thrilled. We got floor tickets and tried to get ourselves as close to the stage as possible. Remi Wolf opened for Olivia and although I didn’t know who she was, she still performed beautifully and I even knew one of her songs which is actually really catchy. Then Liv came out and performed. I swear it’s crazy that she doesn’t have a single bad song. Towards the end of the set, I basically came close to death and almost passed out from heat stroke and dehydration but my roomie came to the rescue and pushed through mass amounts of fans to get some air and water.

Today was absolutely amazing and I don’t regret a single thing. This was definitely NOT a “bad idea, right?”