if you type exit, it should re-enter initramfs with the exact error, probably a disk error. If so, it will tell you to run fsck on a specific disk.
Check this Ask Ubuntu question - https://askubuntu.com/questions/137655/boot-drops-to-a-initramfs-prompts-busybox
Clojure could be fascinating for you to learn. It is a different type of language from more common industry standards, but it still has a good adoption and is used by many companies. Clojure for the Brave and True is commonly recommended as a starting point. The Land of Lisp is excellent as well.
It works as well as the other corporate offerings. It does depend a bit on who's hosting it.
Great to hear that it worked :D It is a very common error condition.