Lesson Nineteen: Un Turista Mala Onda

David comes back from Mar del Plata today. He had a very, very bad time on his trip. Jimena asks why, seeing as how it is such a beautiful place.

“Nah, nah, NAH!” says David. It’s not beautiful at all, he says.

Jimena tells him that an Englishman discovered Mar del Plata—and no, it was not Beckham, David. It was Sir Francis Drake, and he called it Cape Lobos, because of all of the sea lions (called lobos marinos, or sea wolves, in Spanish) that are seen there. David is a bit confused. He didn’t see any lobos marinos in Mar del Plata. Jimena then asked if he went to the puerto or the pedestrian mall. No and no—David doesn’t know what she’s talking about...he didn’t see any of this on his trip!

Jimena doesn’t understand why he didn’t see these things either—what did he travel five hours for? David says it wasn’t a five hour trip; it was more like an hour and a half.

......

Ahhh, now Jimena understands—David went to La Plata, not Mar del Plata. Oh, David. Que boludo. He’s pretty pissed about it too, saying that it’s a tourist trap created by La Plata; why do they have two cities named so similarly only a couple hours away from one another? If David was in charge of things, all cities would have numbers, so as not to confuse one with the other.


Next up is vocabulario—we learn about the names of streets and cities in Argentina and Chile. Most of these are named after historical figures like San Martin, Juan B Justo, and Bartolemé Mitre. We also learn about the Spanish verbs ser/estar in terms of describing a city, and we learn about adjectives to describe cities. We also talk about taking the bus, subte, and train, which are VERY useful Spanish phrases in Buenos Aires. Thank you, Bueno, entonces...!

We finish with David talking with Jimena about the valor del sexo in a relationship (I don't really know how we got here, but it makes sense, I promise), and Jimena tells David that sexo no tiene nada que ver con amor. Of course, David disagrees wholeheartedly and says that Jimena only thinks this because her boyfriend is bad in the sack.