Is there a good way to change locations in a LD?

I am still very new to this and have only had a handful of LD's but I find that I am always wandering around some building with lots of doors and hallways. I tried asking my dream to take me to other locations, but it doesn't seem to get me very far. One time I specifically asked to get to Paris and the first person I ran into spoke a non-sensical version of French (I understand French) and it threw me off and killed the dream. In fact....so far my LDs have been pretty darn boring, aside from the excitement of becoming lucid.

I guess I am also wondering how do I make things happen- its all just walking and searching and trying to think of things to do. I am sure that I need much more practice but wondering how much other people manipulate the locations?