(note: the above size estimates are accurate for 14 year old boys' hands, so you may wish to size them down a bit)

If you live in a city apartment, it's still possible to get a lot of practice with primitive fire-starting:

• Start the fire inside a charcoal grill. Landlords may not be keen on you keeping a large wood fire going, since that produces more sparks and embers that might be a risk to nearby cars/houses. But a small fire should be okay, to practice the fire-starting process only, and then put it out immediately after.
• If dry tinder is really hard to find, substitute ~1 sheet of paper.