Buying a coat

14th October, 2011

After yesterday's introduction to the cold of Minnesota (even though yesterday probably seemed like a summer breeze to most Minnesotans), I decided that I should get a winter coat. I have also decided that I will visit the Rocky mountains so will need one there for sure. Today there was a cold wind all day. Even though the temperatures were not that low, it felt very cold. As I was walking in the city, I was glad that I wasn't going to experience the real cold of Minnesota. It is incredible how fast the temperatures have fallen. Just a few days ago, I was sweating it out in a t-shirt and today I was wearing a vest, long sleeve shirt, jumper, sports jacket and hat (and I was still cold). It may yet snow before I leave.

I went to Nicollet Mall, the main shopping street in Downtown Minneapolis. It is very convenient that all of the stores are on the one street. They have cheap places like Target, Macy's, Marshalls and Gap, as well as more expensive ones like Sak's, Men's Warehouse and a place that seems to sell exclusively Italian-made clothes (which was a bit out of my price range - $1,400 for a coat, for example).

I really hate shopping so I was really looking to find something straight away. I went into every store, except one and found nothing suitable. Target was too cheap, Marshall didn't have my size and Macy's 'small' size is  American small (which is quite large). The last place I went to was Sak's. Luckily for me they had a sale on. There was a nice woolen coat 75% off and they had it in my suit size, which is quite rare. It should keep me warm here and in the Rockies.

After my purchase, I noticed that the skyways were being used a lot (the photo above is from the skyway and overlooking the main shopping street). My hat also blew off with the wind and I hat to chase it down the street. So I decided that I would walk the skyways and see how far I could get before I had to go outside. I was able to walk to the end of the street a number of blocks without going outside. It is very interesting walking through them. You end up walking through places that you would never ordinarily walk through, such as a number of offices and stores. Because of the skyways, I read that the rent on the 1st floor (or 2nd floor in American speak) of buildings is often more expensive that the ground floor. All of the buildings are links so you can walk from one walkway to another and convenience stores and coffee shops have popped up near popular skyways. It's a very interesting phenomenon.

I came home and decided to go to my second Taize prayer of the week in the local Methodist church. It's only a 10 minute walk from me. They call it Taize worship. All of the songs were in English, even the Latin ones. It was strange singing 'Laudate Dominum' in English. It was done very well. The altar was set up nicely and they had an excellent singer, who sang all of the solos. Strangely though, they had a short sermon but no intercessions. Unfortunately there weren't many people there (only about 7) and only one other young person.

On the way home, I decided that I wanted something warm and wintery for dinner. I decided on Polish bigos. I got the ingredients and made a pot of it while listening to Polish reggae on my laptop. I just finished eating with a nice dark beer from a micro-brewery in New Mexico that my housemate had. The bigos is still boiling away and will do me for another few days I'd say.