I personally think somewhere like the parking lot at Home Depot on Aurora, and then cruising the nearby streets until comfortable, then hitting Aurora for a freeway-like experience. Kind of an all-in-one deal.

When I learned I first drove in parking lots until I could actually go without stalling. From there it was the small side roads around our house, and my step dad did the hills with me. REALLY awesome- he'd have his hand on the emergency break so if I didn't catch the clutch right away and started rolling I wouldn't panic. I picked it up almost immediately because I wasn't nervous.

I just learned a few weeks ago on back roads in south king county. While that's probably a bit far for you to go, I'd definitely get out of the city. Too many distractions for driving a stick for the first time.

If you really don't want to go very far, try to find a big empty parking lot. Preferably the top of a multi-level parking garage, where there's only one place cars can go in and out of. If it's well-lit, nighttime might be better, since there are less cars around. And you can even practice hill driving going up to the top level! (I work in Bellevue, and the Bel Square parking garage would be *awesome* for this. It's mostly empty at night)

Best of luck. Now that I know how, I definitely prefer driving a manual transmission, and am thankful there are people like you around to teach people like me =)