Super-Duper Wacky n' Tacky Euro Adventure

Okay, after being so bitchy last night, I had to report in a positive aspect from yesterday. At two separate times yesterday, I had my first conversations with actual Russians! The first went something like this:
Me: Pazhalsta, u vas yest Kaltyestaya? (don’t remember if those are the actual words.)
Two Teenagers: (Head nod, hands me a bottle opener)

The other was a bit more comic:
Me: Ya studient Americanets. Ya c iosef, Marina, y Victor Gregorovich.
Old Lady: Ahh, blah, yah! (lots of yelling Russian.
So it turns out while I was trying to enter my building, I got the wrong entrance and while I was trying to convince the lady in the front to let me in with my vocabulary of seven words, she kept telling me that no one by the name of Iosef, Marina and Victor Gregorovich lives on this side of the building, try the other door. Needless to say, this conversation was repeated about ten times before I got it.