Problems getting started in Wordpress.

I signed up with wordpress to make a blog yesterday and it is very frustrating and seems to be something only people who are blog experienced.

I want to my dashboard and set up my profile with no problem but There seems to be no placed to get to the area were I pick out a template or begin making pages. Unless I am really missing something it is much less user friendly that Blogger which I have some experience with.

How do I get started. The getting started area gives some information but there is still no place to build.
Wordpress has a good reputation so I want to do it but if it is brain surgery please recommend something else with feeds, automatic pinging and so on. I am really this is free or I world feel ripped off. Any help that would make this a positive experience would be appreciated or recommend something else. This really makes me appreciate SBI more.

The default installation only comes with two themes. If neither interests you, you will need to go to Themes which are at wordpress.org.

The two default themes are located in Presentation and it is a point and click operation to change one for the other default theme. For a theme beyond the defaults as said earlier go to wordpress.org find a theme you like, downloadf it, then upload it using your preferred FTPclient making sure that you are at public_html/wp-content/themes before uploading the new theme.Last time I bothered to look there where over a 1000 themes if memory serves. While at wordpress.org look over the plugins and see what interests you. If you find something it is the same process only you end up in plugins prior to uploading any desired plugins(read and understand how the developer setup the plugins, some are point and click, others require more work to make them active)Hope this helps and happy Blogging