Today was our sixth day in Birmingham! Today was mainly educational but in the form of a tour led by a hilarious woman named Marcia. Marcia was our tour guide for the Black Heritage Walk around Birmingham. She knows so much history of not only Birmingham’s black heritage but all about black history as a whole. One of the first historic areas she showed us was the statue of Joseph Sturge. We learned that he was an anti-slavery abolitionist who founded “Sturge Town” which is a free village. Basically, during that time slaves that managed to escape could go to Sturge Town and become freed slaves because it was private property owned by Joseph Sturge. I never knew this piece of history before and thought that it was super interesting.

Next, we saw the statue of the Golden Boys who are Matthew Boulton, James Watt, and William Murdoch. We learned that they were inventors and engineers; James Watt invented the steam engine. Additionally, we learned that the British Empire never went away, instead, they changed it into being referred to as the Commonwealth. The statue of the Golden Boys was my favorite one we saw, and I found the history behind it to be interesting, and Marcia really had me engaged with everything she talked about regarding the statue.

Then, we went into the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. I remember we were here briefly on our first day in Birmingham, but we were in and out and did not get the chance to truly look at the museum. We went through various pieces and Marcia gave a brief history on each one in the main areas of the museum. Then, we went to a different area that consisted of larger pieces and the coolest ones in my opinion. My favorite thing that we saw them were framed butterflies. I loved seeing all of the beautiful patterns on them and being able to see types that I have never seen before.

After we finished our walking tour we went to dinner at Jamaya which is a Jamaican restaurant. I had never had Jamaican food before, so I was not entirely sure what to expect. Almost all of the food on the menu had Jerk chicken in it which was not my vibe considering I am not the biggest fan of chicken. Instead, I decided I wanted to get the mac n’ cheese (shocker). However, we had to wait about forty minutes just to be able to order our food which took a lot of our time away from going to shop. Eventually we did get to order and once I received my meal, I initially thought it was going to be good but as I kept eating it the more disappointed, I became. It was a baked mac n’ cheese with a layer of cheese on the top that had seasoning on top. However, under the top layer was just bland mac n’ cheese and they only used one type of cheese. To put it simply the presentation looked better than how it tasted.

Overall, today was a great day and I am thrilled to go and explore Oxford tomorrow!