Be grateful, kids, that we have a language that does not involve two types of past tense. I have heard countless explinations in my short life of how to distinguish between imperfect and perfect all of which seem to be absolutely contridictory. Yay! Also if you use pluscamperfecto here you are a total jackass. That's rioplatanes español for ya. I'm learning.
So if this post looks wierd, it's because all Argentine keyboards are severly tempramental and choose to insert spaces wherever they feel the need to, which is everwhere, so it 's a constant ba ttleto t ype and if I ignore it verything starts to look like this.
So I had my first colectivo ride today. Colectivos are buses that run on practically every single street in the city, even the small ones. There a re somet hing like 500 l ines, each of which is run by a separate company and looks totally different. I thought that Buenos might be first world enough to not have Bus Craziness, but these things ( some, anyway) are totally pimped out. I'm t alking elaborate paint jobs, polished, fancy hubcaps, the occasional Vir gin Mary painting, tin craftwork inside, and nice-ass seats. I had avoide d them until today because there is o nly one guide that you can get to the bus system, and like all things t ruly Argentine, it is impossible to figure out. My ride was okay, except I did´n't know how to request a s top, so I just kind of glared at the driver when we were at a light until he let me off.
My intensive course is going well. It's intense at times, you might say . I'm learning more and more and I think it's fun how much you can pick up in just a week.
Oh and James, if you read this, I have encountered the stalawo!(hasta luego) phenomenon here too. I have been known to pull it out a couple of t imes myself.
saludos,
nato
2 comments:
i wish the chicago buses were like that...the occasional vomit stain is about as colorful as it gets...why are americans so afraid of decorative gaudiness?
what do they think of you down there so far?
bry
ok, so i'm totally comparing everything you say about argentina now to my experience in chile.
Here, I think there are taxis that are called colectivos, that have a black instead of a yellow top - where random people can ride together and everyone in the cab shares the tab. I've not done this yet, so I don't know. I do see some small buses around that might be a similar sort of transportation, and our neighbor has a big blue van/bus that Shana rented out for the mission trip group - not pimped out by any means. Taxis and micros (the big buses that go along different lines in the city) on the other hand can be quite pimped out, with various Catholic symbols, stuffed animals, etc. Here, all the buses and taxis are owned by different people as well, but they all look the same, which is nice.
I look forward to beginning my courses here as well - I'm sure my Spanish will greatly improve. To let you know, hasta luego is considered very formal here, so I don't think the "stalawo" phenomenon exists. I did try to use "cachai" the other day with Paulina, which was kind of exciting - it's like "you know" in the U.S., and people say it a lot in conversation, at least the younger ones - do people use "cachai" there? Oh, and "como estai" as a more informal "como estas"?
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