Choose a hat.

Beginners. Do you love to shop? Some people are addicted to shopping; they love to go out and buy things. Others enjoy window shopping, which is safer  for your wallet. I am not a big shopper; I have to love something before I am willing to buy it. However, window shopping is a great past time. You don't even have to take any money with you. It can be fun to see what shops have to offer from the outside. Nobody inside the shop can put pressure on you to buy anything, and if the weather is nice, you can hang around for as long as you like. I came across a shop the other day which looked very interesting. It was a hat shop. Obviously, it was full of hats. But these hats weren't just ordinary hats; many were extraordinary. The window wasn't very big, but it was full of hats of all different colors and shapes. As I looked through the door, I could see that the shop was long and narrow, and from the floor to the ceiling it was full of hats on shelves. There were very elegant hats, party hats, crazy hats, warm hats, and even historic looking hats. The people inside the shop were trying them on and laughing as they looked at eachother. It must be a very fun place to work, seeing people amused all day long. Grammar notes. Related vocabulary: addict / addicted, wallet, to window shop, a past time, shelf/ shelves, to come across, floor, ceiling. Verbs: to laugh (reg.), to come across (come, came, come) Exs: I  came across a hundred dollar bill in the road. They came across as very rude. To buy (buy,bought,bought). Advanced. When I was a student in London, I bought a hat one day in Camden Town. I still have it, though I haven't worn it for years. It is a light, comfortable hat that is black and has golden sequins all over it. Right at the front, above my forehead is a golden elephant. It is quite an eye catcher. Sometimes when I am organizing my closet, I will come across it. It takes me right back to London, the sights, sounds, smells, and experiences of being a student in that great city. When I first moved out to the United States, I became a teacher in a local High School. One day, everybody in the school was allowed to dress up, so, amongst other things, I wore my hat. It got a lot of attention, and my students became curious about where I had bought it. It is surprising how one piece of clothing can tell a story. I suppose what we wear does reflect something about our personality, our choices, perhaps our preferences. Well, I wear many other hats now, but they are figurative, not actual hats. Some of the hats I wear are: wife, mother, podcaster, language student, bill payer, and world citizen. I like my hats; they are the ones that I have chosen. I look forward to a variety of new ones that I will pick up in the future. Grammar notes. Useful expressions: to wear (wear, worn, worn), closet, to come across, to dress up, curious, preferences, choices, figurative, bills. Verbs: To take back, exs: The book took me right back to where I used to live. Seeing her again after so many years, took my back to my childhood.