Today was our eighth day in Birmingham! This morning started out great, the night before I was able to get plenty of sleep and I did not have to wake up until 8 in the morning. We caught the bus at 8:45 and headed to our touring destination, Black Country. When we got off the bus, we had quite the walk to do before we made it to the right area because we missed the bus we were supposed to get on next. Once we finally arrived there my first order of business was to check out the gift shop. It was full of various souvenirs specific to the destination along with old toys like yoyos, paddle balls, etc. After some time spent at the gift shop, we got our wristbands to officially enter Black Country. The first thing we did was go on a tour of an abandoned coal mine. Before we entered the mine, we had to put on safety hats and make sure all valuable items were securely put in our pockets or bags. Then we were led by a wonderful tour guide down into the mine where we had to duck our heads to get through many of the areas within it. Throughout the mine were various sculptures of what a miner during that time would look like which was followed up with a prerecorded audio giving background on what we were seeing. We learned that there were various jobs in the mine like the young boys who worked in the mine were in charge of ensuring that the door to get in and out stayed shut when not being used. Also, as the men were working down in the mines, women were working above them and every man’s wife would prepare a meal for them for dinner which would be sent down in a small basket covered with cloth and some sort of marking to differentiate whose is whose. The tour of the mine was my favorite thing that I got to do in Black Country. It was cool to imagine what it must have been like to be down there working away from 6am-6pm.

After we got out of the mine, we decided to head over to lunch. I went to one of the restaurants and got a bag of salt and vinegar chips, a cheddar jacket potato and water. Even though my lunch was simple it was still really good, especially the jacket potato. Then once we finished up lunch we went into the school building where we got to experience what class would be like during the 1960s. The man was Mr. Griffiths; he was very interactive and entertaining which made the experience worthwhile. My favorite part of the experience is when we got to sing Hickory Dickory Dock, and he picked a boy in the audience to be the mouse running up the clock. When we finished our pretend class at the school building, we headed over to one of the events they had going on where they were selling a lot of vintage merchandise. I saw a jewelry rack that had rings in it and picked out a few to buy for only a pound each. By this point, it was time to start heading back to the entrance to begin the walk back to the bus. Once we made it on the bus after another long walk I decided to take a short nap before getting back to the hotel. When we made it back, I began working on the presentations we will be giving tomorrow with my group which took up the rest of my evening.

Overall, today was a good day and I am happy I got to do the mine tour. I am not eager for the presentations tomorrow, but it is one step closer to going to London, so I’ll take it.