I've never played Minecraft on multiplayer before. My single player worlds have all been a failure, as I would usually die on the third or fourth day. I had to build my house out of dirt as well.
This is why I've decided I'm going to start playing on multiplayer. I figure if there are lots of other players around me, they could give tips and help me with my surviving and building skills. The server I found online is supposed to be a world with lots of cities around, to represent real life. As soon as I found the server, I immediately logged onto Minecraft, typed in the address, and clicked the "Join" button. Messages popped up on the screen as the server was loading.
Connecting to the server…
Logging in…
Downloading Terrain
After waiting for a few minutes for the world to load, I finally spawned.