Should I learn Python instead?

[fyleow]

Hi guys,

I'm a student/hobbyist programmer interested in creating a web project.
 It's nothing too complicated, I would like to get data from an RSS
feed and store that into a database.  I want my website to get the
information from the database and display parts of it depending on the
criteria I set.

I just finished an OO programming class in Java and I thought it would
be a good idea to do this in C# since ASP.NET makes web applications
easier than using Java (that's what I've heard anyway).  I thought it
would be easy to pick up since the language syntax is very similar but
I'm getting overwhelmed by the massive class library.  MSDN docs are
very good and thorough but the language just seems a little unwieldy
and too verbose.

This is how to access an RSS feed and create an XML document to
manipulate it.

System.Net.WebRequest myRequest = System.Net.WebRequest.Create("//feed
url here");
        System.Net.WebResponse myResponse = myRequest.GetResponse();
        System.IO.Stream rssStream = myResponse.GetResponseStream();
        System.Xml.XmlDocument rssDoc = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();

        rssDoc.Load(rssStream);

Here's PHP.

$rss_feed = file_get_contents($rss_url);

I realize that learning the library is part of the process, but as a
beginner I appreciate simplicity.  Is Python easier than C#?  Can
someone show how to access an XML document on the web and have it ready
to be manipulated for comparison?  Any other advice for a newbie?

Thanks.