I am a self-taught beginner. For reference, I play Alfred's level 2 or David Nevue's "Twinkle, Twinkle" with a little practice relatively well.

Today, I started with a piano teacher. She suggested that I would want to start practicing Etudes. Since we had enough to work on (I'm starting Nevue, "I Surrender All"), I told her I would find some Etudes and start to see what I could do. I guess I thought they were mostly public domain and easy to find. I was kind of right and kind of wrong. Yes, I found some...but the notes all say that they are difficult to very difficult to play. I don't know where to start.

Is there something out there that is free and is a good jumping off point? I don't want something that is "very difficult". I don't think I am at that point yet. I downloaded Chopin 10.1 thinking that his Etudes worked their way up in difficulty. Am I wrong about that? I could wait til next week and ask the teacher, but I'm excited to try something new. Thanks!

You are very wrong in thinking that chopin's etudes work their way up in difficulty. All of Chopin's are advanced pieces. Most etudes composed by famous composers are rather advanced pieces.
Possibly look the the expressive etudes series, I've heard good things about them. Here's a link to book one, but go ahead and look through all of them so you can get an idea of which book you should be in.
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_...-_-recs-_-link3

I'm amazed a piano teacher would do that contextless - didn't she give you examples of the etudes she had in mind...?

Yes, I realized late my error in rating the difficulty level. I did not realize how advanced they are. Thank you for the link. I will check it out. Do you know of any free or downloadable (I am willing to pay) Etudes in an easy- moderately easy level? I guess I am a rather impatient person.

If you look at the pieces that are listed in the expressive etudes series, most of them are public domain and can probably be found from http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Composers
Just look at who composed each piece listed in the expressive etudes book and then find them on that site.

This was our first lesson. I demonstrated where I was at in my ability. We discussed where I want to go. I explained my difficulties. It was a lot of philosophy with a bit of playing thrown in. I agree that she could have been more clear in her expectation, however I probably misled her in my cavalier attitude. I do have a stash of etudes...I'm a big music collector. I have just never played them and didn't realize the difficulty level. She mentioned them as a teaching technique that we will be working on. She teaches a variety of instruments and didn't have them at hand when the topic came up. As it was the lesson ran long because we talked about so many things. I would like to start before next week and am looking for a good place to start. No worries yet!

How about Czerny? I love (and are driven to hateful distraction) his exercises. Some are simple enough (e.g. op 453, 110 Easy and Progressive Exercises, Schirmer Ed.) but fun to play as well as being educational.

This is deja vu for me. After my first couple of lessons, my teacher thought I was more advanced than what I really am because, like you, I was self-taught and probably gave the that impression. It didn't take long to find out that there was a lot missing in my technique. Yes, I was able to read music much better than the absolute beginner and was able to put some songs together but there were important things I missed along the way. A good teacher is an invaluable asset and recommend it highly. Just putting pieces together in right tempo has proven to be feat. I am currently learning a very short piece by Chopin Op. 28, no. 7 which I love but am still having trouble getting the right tempo even after a couple of weeks.