Tues Dec 6: breakfast was included in my price so I went to the restaurant and ate there (just continental, nothing cooked). I saw American cheese for the first time since being here so I put it on my toast. It tasted soo awful! I remember a brit telling me that American cheese taste like rubber, and he was right, but it doesn't taste like that in the US! I got talking to one of the staff and he is studying in Birmingham but working part time and living in wall heath, so he commutes by train every day to bham! That's a bit much. So after I ate I checked out and went to the black country living museum in dudley. It was really fun despite the school groups. The place was so big I could easily avoid them. Not only did they have exhibits (which I didn't see) they salvaged old 19th century buildings from the surrounding areas and rebuilt and restored them, brick by brick on the museum grounds (and kept them in their original design). So they reconstructed a whole fictitious village and there were people in costumes in the shops and houses, workers at the chain makers, brass workers, bakers etc. They were all working away in the traditional method but like the bakers couldnt put their items for sale cause the practice didn't comply with modern h&s standards. So they were just baking for the show of it. A bit of a waste methinks! But anyway besides the school groups it wasn't a busy day which was good so I would spend like 20 min at each place I visited, talking to the costumed people about life in the 19th/ early 20th cent. I went to a small cottage, a workers institute where they had a small exhibit about the women chainmakers strike, a radio shop, tobaccoist, men's clothing shop (where you could actually buy old style clothes), motorcycle/ bicycle shop (that was my fav..they had some original bikes from the 1800s and I learnt that the woman's bike had the low curve bars because of the ladys dress!) old fish and chip shop (cooked in the traditional beef fat method..I didn't order anything!), an old school, chapel, some more houses, sweet shop and bakers, pub, and even an old movie theater, that played short films! I watched a Charlie chaplin silent movie, it was quite funny actually. So after that I just did some more wandering, went to the canal boat dock, and the nail makers. The woman in the radio and tobacco shop talked for quite a bit. After she ran out of things to tell me about at the respective shops we just started talking normally. There was an older couple (early 50s?) That I kept bumping into, they were always coming in after I was or vice versa. So at one point when we were in a house from 1851 they said to me "oh you're from ny" and I was like yeah..but I hadn't talked to them yet! And they said "we've been hearing much about you from the people who work here cause we've been following each other all day" and since the tobaccoist was the last stop for us we got talking in there to each other and to the lady who "ran" the shop. They were locals, so it was good to see they were interested in the history of their area, most people bypass that and do that in other areas (myself included..in ny anyway). So then I left and had to hurry to Birmingham. I was going to couch surf at this guy Michals house in exchange for him coming to the motley crue and def leppard concert with me. The opening band steel panther started at 6:30 pm so I was hoping to get to his at 4, so we could eat, I could shower and then set off. But I had a bunch more hills than I anticipated so I got there at 4:33 pm (left at 3:27 pm and did 14.27 mi, but already had 6.16 mi from going from wall heath to dudley, max 23.5 avg 7.7) but we just thru a pizza in the oven and I didn't have a shower. So around 5:40 pm we set off to take the train but it was delayed cause the driver hadn't arrived! So we went on another train which was also a little delayed. We got there in the end but just as steel panther finished so that was a bummer. I really hate British public transportation! But no matter, we saw motley crue and def leppard and that's what counts! They were awesome!! Tommy lee's drum set rotated on a steel wheel, he was drumming upside down at one point! Then he brought a member of the audience on stage and strapped him in and brought him on the ride. It looked real cool. After the show we took the train back and I was tired so I went to bed shortly after talking to michal and getting to know him some more. He was pretty fun and down to earth, which was comforting for my first couch surfing experience. I slept on his couch but I was a little cold in the middle of the night, but he provided me with a portable heater so that did me right :-)anot
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