Adventure? in second life

I wish I had a photo. I took a couple while I was in SL but do not know where they have gone.
I discovered on Wednesday that SL will work with Vista now so set off on my journey. I arrived on Orientation Island and met a young lady there. She was from New York and was in SL to make friends as part of a class she is doing. We had a wee chat and flew around together for a wee while then went our separate ways. We signed each other up as friends. While we were talking a strange shadowy creature came up to me and seemed to be touching various parts of my virtual body, I ignored it. I explored a little, got on a vehicle and ran over a few rats. Wandered around the island and looked at some videos, then teleported to an area with shops. I found amongst other things that I could buy female anatomical parts. One has to ask the question why???? Went to various other places fairly aimlessly. I tried to talk to some people but they mostly ignored me. Some just stood and stared at me. I did learn how to dance, again I am left asking why would I want to virtually dance? Went to money Island but you can't make money if you come from New Zealand, only UK, USA, Australia can fill in surveys to do this.

It was a very strange experience. I wasted an awful lot of time doing very little. I was not able to join our group on Thursday as I was transporting our Japanese guests to Balclutha. I think it may be useful to go to SL with others or to go if you have some idea of useful things to do, otherwise I really wouldn't bother. Still I did develop some skill at moving around which is seems from the posting on our group blog,"Our first venture into second life" is fairly important to get the most out of the experience. Perhaps it was not such a waste of time after all then?