Tele is friggin rad, once you learn you will never go back.
Learning to tele friggin sucks...plan on spending a lot of time face down in the snow, and falling in all kinds of new and exciting ways.
Pick a week when the weather is bad, or go at night up to Snoqualmie and just make laps. Dont give up...eventually you'll get it.
For starter gear, go for a softer boot, maybe like the new T-2
and go for shorter skis than you might otherwise normally ski.
There's a ton of bindings out there these days. Do some research, because they all perform quite differently. Mostly, it comes down to how much adjustability you want in your system, and how "active" you want your binding to be.
There's lot's of great info out there so I won't bore everyone with it here.
Have fun!