Hey,
never to late for getting back to the hobby! :-)
I think the globe thing you're looking for is QuteScoop.
And there are a few clients available: Squawkbox is certainly still usable, I use VPilot and I think there are a few others, maybe have a look here:
https://fselite.net/news/vatsim-swift-client-available-in-open-beta/
Apart from that exiting times are ahead with a new voice codec coming up that will significantly increase the audio quality and hopefully eliminate some comunication problems:
https://blog.vatsim.net/index.php/posts/something-new
https://www.vatsim.net/news/vatsim-announces-signups-audio-vatsim-large-scale-testing
I'm far from a Vatsim pro myself, but I'm sure some of the guys, who are around here can add a few bits.
Cheers!
