laravel -- tutor/guru!

Hi/morning (depending on where you are when you see this) I'm looking to get the toe dipped into "laravel". Basically, due to there being a bunch of laravel apps, and I have to start somewhere. I realize there are plenty of people who would/will say, use X, just as people will also say, "do it with Y".. But for now, I'm starting with laravel. Got to start somewhere. So, I'm reading/looking over lots of sites, handing out in channels, looking to get a clarity. This is a mess! Sites too often make assumptions, and appear to just be cut/copy/paste with some mods of other stuff.. They say "do X" with no explanation of what the proceeding steps should be, or why, etc.. So, i'm looking for a tutor/mentor, someone I can talk with, do a quick learn from with a real world example/site. Or perhaps someone has run across a site that does a great job explaining this process. Thanks -bruce badouglas@gmail.com ps, like I said, i've been hanging out in the various channels with no luck at all.