These notes are intended to help students make the transition between the elementary aspects of algebraic geometry (varieties in affine and projective space, etc.) and some of its more sophisticated aspects (normal varieties, Weil and Cartier divsors, etc.).
The material presented here is taken from the notes prepared for the course on toric varieties given at the Summer School on The Geometry of Toric Varieties held in Grenoble in 2000. I am grateful to Laurent Bonavero and Michel Brion for inviting me to participate in the Summer School. Their comments (and those of Gottfried Barthel and the other participants) are greatly appreciated.