Well done, its a magic feeling doing those first flights...a real sense of achievement.
Flying 'tail in' is sensible....of course its more natural...as you get more confident you can swing the heli around a bit....but always have a set move that will bring the tail towards you again.
The secret is this:
use that sim...and use it often...in reality dont try to fly like you can on the sim...just hold off a bit.
Hovering the heli and having good control over it is important, strive to get this and the rest of the flying will follow.
Rob