I am in total despair - don't know where to goFollow

I am in total despair and running around for more than an hour trying to find the Archer quest place "School of Hard Knocks"

First of all, you never see where an exit is, it just says "adjuoining area". Then you are in town and all around 'adjoining areas'. You want to go to a 'Central area' but nothing tells you were it is. I try various adjoining areas and change from old town area to new town are wtf.
If you for instance have to go to a Yellow Serpent Gate NOTHING shows you were the foots the yellow serpent gate is.
The small Aethershards in towns are pretty useless too. On the map they are simply called Aethershards. So if you want to travel to a particular part in town, you don't know what Aehtershard you need to use (unless it is soemething obvious such as Archer Guild)

Anyway, I have been running like a slave loosing joy in the game more and more and EVENTUALLY get to an area that is very close to the School of Hard Knocks.
But it is floating somewhere between the clouds and when I eventually find a way to maybe get to it, it is soooo close, there are all level 26 mobs there. (I am level 10 and it is a level 10 quest) So naturally I die and am back in town. Now I can start my one hour run again to the stupid place.

And by the way, what are all the silly orange dots on the map that mean nothing apparently - freckles to beautify the stupid area?

I am giving up I am totally frustrated and angry and feeling hopeless!

Edited, May 17th 2014 1:28am by Aussiechick

Orange dots typically indicate quest mobs. You may have a quest to kill some of them. If you look at them and, without targeting them, they have a symbol of some sort above their heads, then you have to kill them for something (quest, hunting log, Atma book).

You might want to take a few minutes to really look at the maps. I know the quest you're talking about, and you don't even have to leave town to do it. There are no mobs there at all, much less level 26 ones. Also, the game world isn't that big, you could visit every zone on foot in an hour. So either you're prone to hyperbole, or you are just painfully lost. Either way, you're making this very easy quest much harder than it is.

Thanks so much for the replies. I realize I was getting to the area from the wrong end and it seems I was above the area I needed to go. That was not visible from where I was.
Anyway I got some new medication from a new doctor and it did not agree with me so it had a lot of side effects like making me really aggro (I shouted at the dogs and they have never been shouted at) and was just hyper. Luckily I am over it now.