Lesson Eight: La amás o la odiás

David basically learns how to be a good Argentine in lesson eight. He is really, really excited to finally try maté, which is the tea-like beverage that they drink here in Argentina. We learn that maté is a symbol of communication—people drink maté in a group and pass the drink around from one person to the next. There is one individual who is the dedicated "pourer" and pours the water into the maté, and this is called cebar. Normally, the verb for “serve” is servir, but because the server is actually really the pourer, we use cebar.

Of course, David asks the inevitable question of whether or not Argentines are afraid of germs when they are all sharing the same straw. Jimena assures him that no, of course they don’t care. It is part of sharing maté.

David then tries it. Cue expletives. Not a huge fan, but as they say, la amás o la odiás. He'll get used to it, though. I remember having my first maté and hating it. It really does taste like grass. After awhile, though, you realize that it is a social thing. In a circle of Argentine friends, I would never say no to sharing a maté. I have discovered that some of my best conversations have been over sharing a few matés, and if that means I have to get used to drinking grasswater, so be it.

After learning about maté, we then go on to learn about adjectives (using the endings –oso, -ura, -ado, and -ido) and then more food vocab. The best part was in the end where we learn how to order without making an ass out of ourselves. What I have found with mozos (or anyone here, really) is that when they see a gringo face, it's like their ears completely stop working. You can be so close to being correct, but if the mozo looks at you like you're a tool, then you get nervous, and end up saying something like, "Want. Meat. Juicy. Potatos." With Bueno, entonces... , however, we learn exactly what to say and how to say it. A pretty novel concept, I know, to be able know how to say what you want to say. One would be surprised, though. In Argentina, I've said and not said things that I had no intention of saying or not saying. Without knowing I said what I didn't even know I didn't want to say. Es un quilombo.