Small talk is easy with new people - it gets hard when you know the people really well because you already know almost everything.

Starting with "how are you?" or "what'd you do this weekend?" or "got any plans for tonight?" or whatever the hell usually spurns plenty of chit-chat. Unless the person you're talking to is flaky... then that just sucks.

You'll be fine. And congrats on the job - those are hard to come by these days.