Я не говорю по-русски (I don't speak Russian) part 1

Prologue:
Before the trip even started, we ran into problems. Apparently my flight from Phx to Houston had been cancelled and rescheduled for 45 minutes later due to Joe Biden flying into PHX (just gave me one more reason to feel validated in not voting for him)..... making it so I would inevitably miss my connection with my flight to Germany, seeing as how I now wouldn't land until my other flight was already on the runway to take-off. 
    After a long and frustrating phone call with lots of holds, Jason and I packed my bags and heading to SkyHarbor (Phoenix Airport) while still on the phone to see if they could do anything there. I was supposed to Rendezvous with Jason's Sister Amanda in Houston to then finish our flights together, but at this point it wasn't looking too good because every possible option (including other airlines, and through other airports) with the exception of a private chartered Jet (which wasn't an option unfortunately) were going to make me not only miss my connection in Houston to Germany, but ALSO make me miss my connection from Frankfurt Germany to St. Petersburg. Awesome. The best possible option was to fly me to San Francisco, to then Fly me non-stop to Frankfurt, where I would rendezvous with Amanda... but only after they changed both of our flights to St. Petersburg to leave four hours later. Amanda was already in the air, so that was an unpleasant surprise for her when she landed in Houston to not only find out I wasn't coming to meet her, but to find out her 3 hour layover in Frankfurt had turned into a 7 hour layover.  Sorry Amanda :/.  Good news: we finally united in Germany, and made it safely to St. Petersburg..... However it was a long 30 minute drive to our Hotel with a driver who spoke a few rote phrases in English, and that was it (i.e. "You-me... go Hotel Vera").
     We drove through some incredibly sketchy and filthy neighborhoods on our journey from the airport.  I think my heart stopped when he makes a phone call in Russian, then pulls over to the curb and looks at me and says, "I sorry." Amanda and I look at each other, and I was ready for someone to come out of the building and drag me from the car like in the movie "TAKEN." Thankfully this was not the case because when we looked out the window, we saw "Hotel Vera" on the front door. PHEW! Not sure what he meant by "sorry".... maybe he had been lost on the drive and I didn't even know?  With his poor English, it wasn't like I could ask him to clarify. lol.  REGARDLESS, we arrived safe and sound.  Now on with the good stuff.

LEARNING RUSSIAN:
Who would have thought that just learning to sound out words in a foreign language could be so hard?!  I have been so proud to say I can communicate fairly well in two languages (English and Spanish) about just about anything.  However, I am sadly realizing how easy Spanish is in comparison to other languages. For example: 
ресторан = Restaurant
Я не говорю по-русски = I don't speak Russian... Annunciation Aid: Я (ya) не (nye) говорю (go-vo-RYOO) по-русски (pah ROO-ski) 
          Pretty obvious sounds for most of the letters, right?  WRONG.  Even the letters you would THINK you know the sounds for, are not always correct (i.e P makes an R sounds, H makes an N sound, etc).  To demonstrate my dilemma, here is a little chart to show the russian alphabet, their names and the sounds the letters make. 

ALTHOUGH in the United States Spanish and English help me to communicate with most people... I have not been having the same luck here in Russia. There are a decent amount of Front desk workers at Hotels, and Greeters at the airport that Speak English.... but once you step out the front door of your hotel, you are kind of in trouble if you don't have a Russian speaker with you, seeing as how all street signs are in Russian, Maps are in Russian, Announcements on the Subway, train, bus, etc are in Russian, most street vendors and Taxi drivers only speak Russian.... you get the picture.  

My safety nets (besides Я не говорю по-русски) have been: спасибо (thank you), as well as smiling and nodding.  HOWEVER, smiling and head nodding can be problematic as well, as manifested by our little run-in with ticket scalpers for the Ballet (that story will come later). 

This may be in Russian, but % off sign?  As women, we recognize this anywhere as the universal sign for SALE! :).... Time to Shop!

However, In an effort to break up the trip into smaller chunks to make this trip more manageable for the blogger [me] and the reader [you]....and the fact I am still on vacation and have sites to see.... this will be it for now.  Stay Tuned for more pictures of the sites and subsequent Russian Adventures!!!!