Hey gang! 
 
So tonight I'm (finally) buying Minecraft, and I've been watching some introduction and tutorial videos here and there. However, I have some questions that perhaps you guys can answer. 
 
1) When you die, do you respawn somewhere or is it dependant on what difficulty you're playing on? 
2) Can you drown? 
3) Any good website that list recipies? 
4) Any general pointers and beginner stuff you'd like to recommend? 
 
Thanks!

1. You respawn where you last loaded the game from, though without all your stuff. If you're near enough to where you died, your stuff should still be sitting there on the ground for a little while. 
2. Yes. 
3.  http://www.minecraftwiki.net 
4. Don't let anyone tell you that you're playing it wrong.

1. The place you spawn when you start a new world is the place you'll always spawn. 
2. Yes. 
3. minecraft wiki 
4. Build a shelter if you're playing on anything other than peaceful.
 
Good Luck :) 
 
EDIT: Damn, drhans beat me to it.

1) when you die you respawn at the point you started the game. 
2) yes you can drown, its indicated by the bubbles that show up next to the hearts when you are under water. 
3 and 4) This should help.

Other's have already posted the first few. As for tips, hold Shift down and you "Sneak". While Sneaking, you cannot fall off of blocks (ledges, cliffs, sky buildings, roofs, etc). You also do not trample any crops you may build in the future when you sneak. I'm pretty sure enemies can still see you when sneaking though. You can also take apart stacks of items by right clicking them (right clicking chops the stack in half as best it can, leaving half in an inventory slot and the other attached to your mouse), you can then place a single item by once more right clicking.

Other than that, I would advise to play around for a while to get used to it, then go and do whatever you want. Oh, a little info of the difficulty settings: Peaceful has no enemies, aside from the rare tiny-slime in super-deep caves which can't do any damage. And from what I've seen, Easy has tons of enemies, but their health is low (or you do more damage, same thing really). Medium is, well, medium. And hard has a little less enemies, but with more health, taking more hits to kill.