One last question though, how long did it take Bitcoin Core to finish synchronizing for you? It says for me it will take 40 hours... I just really want to purchase something now!!
It really depends on your PC specs. There is a block validation element which requires CPU power (some full node solutions now assume blocks are valid up to a certain cut off point), and the disk based aspect of storing and indexing the blocks and transactions.
On an old magnetic disk drive, I would expect a full block chain download to take about 7 days. On a newer SSD, I would expect it to be done in 24 hours. Your mileage may vary.