Useful words and sentences to study?

Paivaa!
Olen Zooey, Americalainen, Seattleista. Opiskellen Suomea ja rakastan soitaa musikkia.

And... I am very much a beginner. From here I can ask about what time it is, details at the train station, buying things in a shop... but I'm not quite ready to talk to a human being in real time. I'm taking classes with a native and very good teacher, and I have a pretty good start on grammar- partitivii and such.

What I'd like to do is be able to chat in Finnish- I can't quite yet, mainly because I'm still slow learning vocabulary.

I'd love to see suggestions for words and phrases that you find come up particularly often. We have learned basic greetings and things like "Mita Kuulu?" but I'm looking for the next group of words I should learn. I'd also welcome useful phrases, especially as they can be examples of things like passive tense.

Keitos! Nakemiin,
Z