Of Souvenirs and Rain

As today is another quiet day, I shall recount the tale of the weekend, which is the same tale for both days, really.
You see, we went souvenir shopping.  There’s a really excellent souvenir market on the outskirts of Moscow.  There, you can buy your souvenirs for better prices than the expensive souvenir shops on say, Arbot street.  Thus, armed with vast quantities of rubles that we really should have been using to feed ourselves for the next week, we descended upon the market Saturday afternoon.
It was quite a good marketplace, really.  Lots of people, many of the salespeople willing to negotiate (slightly) on prices.  More so if you were Russian, of course, but still a bit for the many foreigners who came.  We had been advised to speak in Russian by the people who had told us about the place, so we were prepared.
It was chaos.  So many people, so many goods... so much everything really.  It was almost a trifle overwhelming.  But we were determined, and on a mission.  I think I kept my head the best.  I was positively frugal.  I think I spent a total of 2,100 rubles over the... well, I’ll get to that later.  At any rate, that equates to roughly.... $70.  That bought me souvenirs for multiple people including myself.  I think most of the others went far, far past the 4,500 ruble mark (about $150). See, Dad’s frugality has rubbed off on me!  All in all, we spent so much time hunting around for good deals that we ended up not having time to get everything we wanted.  Thus, we came to the only possible conclusion: We had to go back on Sunday.
The only catch?  Sunday provided the joy of pouring down rain.  I mean pouring as in, Endymion Parade at Mardi Gras in 2012.  We still went, because we did need to go.  We really did.  I, however made my plans to go in, get what I needed, and escape.  I had something like three things left to get, so it wouldn’t be too difficult.  Besides, the buckets of rain meant that I wouldn’t be tempted to stay and get something else that I really, really didn’t need to get.  And it was so.  I went in, I got what I needed, I got out.  I sent a text to the others telling them that I was escaping the rain and would see them when they were done, and hopped the metro back to Белорусская (that’s our station).  From there, I sloshed back to the dorm, and enjoyed drying out time, figuring the others would be back within an hour or two.  After all, it was our second trip, and it was incredibly soggy.  Three hours later, the others come back, and we absconded to an internet café for a good connection.  
You want to know the really crazy part?  The others went back there again today.  They may keep the market, as far as I am concerned.  I still have money to eat at the cafeteria for lunch instead of having to have two meals of ramen a day.  Frugality really is a good thing in this regard.