Tamara in Switzerland: Shopping Day

So I decided to go into town today and do some shopping for no particular reason (though I have noticed it's tax free weekend at home, unfortunately no such thing here). But anyway I went into St. Gallen with Urs and Ryan who were going to a gathering for Urs's swimming club. We parted ways at the bus station and I headed in the direction of the shops only to be promptly stopped by some guy trying to talk to me about some sort of religious subject. So he leads me to this table where I immediately notice all these booklets with a subheading of "scientology" and authored by L. Ron Hubbard. I was like, really, I'm getting stopped by Scientologists in Switzerland of all places?! But anyway this lady starts trying to talk to me and showing me these booklets that have these ridiculous charts in them showing how to tell what emotions someone is conveying, like I really need a chart to tell me. And then she asks me if I have any problems, and luckily I'm smart enough to know this is the part where she's going to try to convince me that Scientology has all the answers, so I tell her I don't really have any major issues I'm struggling with at the moment and manage to leave. And of course I'm thinking to myself, if I have some problems I need help with, I'd rather put my faith in God as opposed to some guy who wrote Battlefield Earth and other science fiction novels for a living. So yeah that was a totally unexpected experience.

But after that I had a fairly nice afternoon browsing some shops. I went into H&M which I'm surprised we don't have in Texas, but it's in California and the east coast, and is a bit like Gap and Forever 21. I found some nice deals and bought a shirt for 10 franks and then a nice sweater for 15, and my absolute favorite, a purple jacket for 50. It's totally beautiful and worth every penny. I did debate on whether to get the purple or the khaki, but ultimately decided I liked the purple even if it doesn't match as much stuff, though it totally matches my purse and sunglasses. Anyway, then I just walked around a bit and went into the old part of town where the cathedral is. There is also a really old library there, though I have yet to visit it. It supposedly has some books from the middle ages there. I believe it is also a monastery. Nearby there is a chocolaterie which I of course went in, and I had a cocoa drink with vanilla ice cream that was pure chocolatey goodness. Then I decided I didn't need to spend any more money so I came home. It was a relaxing afternoon and I remember how much I miss shopping and buying cheap clothes. Tomorrow I plan on being lazy, and then on Monday Ryan and I were invited by the neighbors to join them at the Lake of Constance, so look for an update on that later.