How to light meter with a Nikon D3000?

I know I'm supposed to know that as I study photography but I just don't cause when we learnt that in the uni I had a really simple camera that can't even change its aperture, let alone meter, so I had no practise in that. Now that I got myself a proper camera I'm ashamed to ask my classmates for help, anyway not that I does matter to you.

So, can anyone help me?
Say I want to shoot the sea, 2 hours after sunrise without the sun in it.

Watch these two videos about metering:

http://www.adorama.com/...-AdoramaTV

http://www.adorama.com/...-AdoramaTV

Look in your manual. But, the light meter is in the middle bottom portion of the camera when you look through the eye piece. To see what I'm talking about take your camera and go to a place where there's a light source (lamp or whatever).It'll help if you focus on any subject doesn't matter what it is. Now while you're looking through the eye piece of the camera you should see little "sticks". When you point the camera at the light or a dark area it should go left or right. Left means it's lighter, right it darker. Practice with it and you'll get the hang of it. And to help you get a better sense of your camera always and only shoot in manual.It'll be frustrating at first but you'll get to know your camera a lot better and you'll learn more. I've had my D300 for 3 years and only shoot in manual, never any set settings.