Initial Second Life Experiences

My initial experiences with Second Life have been mostly pleasant and straightforward, although there have been a few frustrating and confusing moments.  First off, when I registered for the class I was interested in taking part in an online world, as I have never really done this in an open-world setting.  I have played some games online, but none that offer the experience of moving around an enormous environment and interacting with it in many different ways.  The online environments that I have taken part in have always involved set goals and limited interactivity (i.e. attempting to kill some or all of the other inhabitants).  I was and am interested to see what it's like to be in a virtual environment that isn't a non-stop murderfest.  Will I find it boring?  Will there be interesting things to do?  What types of people play these games?  I have an inkling that it's not the same jerky adolescents you find in other types of online environments.

Installing and running SL was really easy.  Everything appears to be compatible with my computer.  Going through the tutorial on basic actions was also simple.  After that, I ran into a few problems.  When I tried to teleport to the class platform it didn't take me there.  I also didn't see anyone else to talk to.  I thought SL would be teeming with people, like being downtown in a busy city.  That doesn't seem to be the case.  I probably don't know where to go to meet people though.  The next time I started up SL I was teleported to the class platform no problem.  I don't know why it worked this time.  That kind of bugs me.  Also, my character moved really slowly and kept freezing up.  Maybe my connection was bad.  I'm hoping that's all it was.  I realized during my second time in SL that there was a lot of stuff I didn't know how to do, like put on the librarian shirt I got from the platform.  I'm pretty sure I got the shirt.  I said to take it.  When I looked in clothing though, I couldn't find it.  I'm sure by spending more time in SL I will learn how to do everything.  It's just frustrating learning it on my own.  I wish I knew someone who could physically be with me and show me the ropes.  That would make it so much easier.