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is the official name of the hand alphabet and sign vocabulary you're talking about.
I put this name in the yahoo browser and came up with some good sites. I work at a newspaper with some deaf people, whom I've persuaded to teach me to sign. My advice is to concentrate on learning the alphabet and to spell out what you want to say. As your relationship grows, perhaps she could be persuaded to teach you some of the signs. It's really not difficult, so long as you have the opportunity to practice daily.
I have a card in my wallet that lists all the signs for the alphabet. I would be happy to scan it and e-mail it to you privately.
One of the things that helped me practice the alphabet waaaas to practice spelling out the following sentence:
"The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dogs."
This sentence contains all the letters of the alphabet at least once, used in the context of spelling out actual words, rather than just practicing the alphabet in order.
Hope this helps you and good luck.
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