I meant there are a couple different modes: Wireframs, flat shaded, shaded and textured
and those are different ways that polygons show up: if you have wireframe you will only see the lines
if you have flat shaded you will see the polygons individually reflecting light
if you have shaded the polygons will "reflect light together" so to speak
and in textured they will reflect light together and show of the texture they have
make sure you DONT have wireframe selected if you wanna see the polygons
and for the record, I am a man.