Wow thanks a ton for the great info! I really appreciate your time. As I feared, pedals & shoes are way more complicated than I thought!

After reading your comments, I think I'll start riding with the normal pedals to get used to the bike and use that time to decide what kind of pedals/shoes to get. It will give me some time to save up some cash as well. I think road shoes will be better now that I think about it since I probably wont be doing much walking in them. I was under the impression that MTB shoes were more comfortable on the bike and I have pretty wide feet so that's why I thought they might be good.

Getting the bike in two days, can't wait to start putting some miles on it!