I remember when I first started to play the game, I feel very disoriented. No worries! MD is full of nice people. Glad you didn't give up, and welcome on board!
Please note there's a row of icons on the left (lined up vertically).
Clicking on the scroll (the first icon from top) takes you to story mode.
Clicking on the compass (the second one) takes you to free roam mode.
Switching pages might help, and you might find something new to do!
If you're stuck in story mode, try [b]Tab[/b] in the story.
Also try:
1) [b]Ctrl+Shift+Delete[/b] to clear cache
2) press [b]F5[/b] to refresh
If it doesn't work:
3) logout & login
If it still doesn't work:
4) restart computer
If it has something to do with the [b]IP address[/b], power-off and power-on your modem would renew it.
Otherwise, read the [b]Bug Report[/b], [b]Resolved Bugs[/b], and [b]Questions and Answers[/b] parts of the forum. (Look toward the bottom right hand side of the forum page, there's a box usually says [b]Forum Home[/b] with a drop down button. You may choose there.) Read at least the titles to see if there's anything relevant to your situation.
If nothing works. Describe the issue, and it would also be helpful to upload screen shot(s) of the problem page(s) using [b]Print Screen[/b]. I wrote another post titled "[i]How to prepare a screen shot for uploading?[/i]" if you need help with that.
Please also read Chewett's posts titled "[i]Posting Bugs[/i]" and "[i]Ongoing Bugs[/i]" under [b]Bug Report[/b].
Good luck!