There's also a bit of lunfardo -- that is, slang particular to Argentina and Uruguay -- that slips into the Biography of our Uruguayan-born, Argentinean-raised Natalia. For example, listen to this line:

Yo creo que tuvieron una relación muy linda, muy intensa, muy... muy copada
I think that they had a very nice relationship, very intense, very... very cool
Caption 25-6, Natalia Oreiro > Biografía > 10

The adjective copado/a is translated as cool, but what does it mean exactly? As in English slang, cool can be hard to capture. "Cool!" can mean "great!" (or "chévere," "guay" or even "chido" in Mexico). A cool kid could be laid-back or up on the latest trends (or "en la onda"). He or she could also be someone who helps his friends ("genial" or "macanudo" in Latin America). So, what is "una relación copada" trying to convey? Well, the relationship wasn't cool in the sense of temperature, obviously. It wasn't laid-back if it was also "very intense" ("muy intensa"). That leaves us with the kind of cool that's great ("genial"). There are a number of lunfardo dictionaries online with different shades of the meanings of copado. Cool?

In the latest installment of Natalia Oreiro's Biography, we learn more about the young actress and singer's accomplishments. For a vocabulary boost, let's listen to some of those sweet words of success.

In the very first line, we hear:

En muy pocos años, Natalia Oreiro logró convertirse en una auténtica diva de la televisión y de la música pop.
In just a few years Natalia Oreiro managed to become a true television and pop music diva.
[Captions 01-2, Natalia Oreiro > Biografía > 10]

"Logró," past tense of the verb "lograr," should sound familiar to our devoted subscribers: In videos Yabla posted during the campaign of the current President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, we heard the verb "lograr," oh, six or seven times in less than five minutes of tape. The verb means "to achieve," to obtain," "to manage" or "to succeed in." As with the English words "achieve" or "succeed in," the Spanish "lograr" implies that there was a purpose or goal in mind and, further, it also implies effort. So, note that Natalia Oreiro quickly succeeded in becoming a big star -- which was not only her aim all along, but something she put a lot of work into.
 
[Usage note: If you're wondering what to say at a graduation ceremony or at the end of a marathon in the Spanish-speaking world: "¡Felicidades! ¡Lo lograste!" ("Congratulations! You did it!") usually does the trick.]

An approximate synonym for "lograr" is "ganar," which has several shades of meaning -- including "to win," "to gain" or "to earn." In our new Natalia Oreiro video, a few lines later, we hear that her show was a winner (un ganador):

"Muñeca Brava" ganó en dos ocasiones consecutivas el Martín Fierro a mejor novela.
"Muñeca Brava" won the Martín Fierro award for best soap opera two consecutive times.
[Caption 14, Natalia Oreiro > Biografía > 10]

Note that one may, for example, win a prize (ganar un premio) with hard work and talent, win the election (ganar las elecciones) with popular ideas or win the lottery (ganar la lotería) by pure chance. To clarify that something was won with intention, you may hear "logró ganar" which means "managed to win" or "succeeded in winning." For some context, check the sports pages for a story of a deserving team that managed to win (logró ganar) an important game or match.

Keeping following the beautiful Ms. Oreiro and you'll encounter more sweet words of success. For now, we'll leave you with two more lines from Part 10 of our Biography video:

Natalia había superado sus sueños
Natalia had surpassed her dreams 
[Caption 17, Natalia Oreiro > Biografía > 10]

Muñeca BrCon su música, Natalia había conquistado mercados alreadedor del mundo
With her music, Natalia had conquered markets around the world
[Caption 29, Natalia Oreiro > Biografía > 10]

Over in Salamanca, Spain, we hear some poetry as we contemplate the statue of Fray Luis de León. Maybe we were thirsty at the time, but in one line, we were interested to hear:

...a exprimir aquellos años...
...to squeeze those years...
Caption 25, Francisco Pérez > Fray Luis de León

What would thirst have to do with our snippet above? Well, asking for "exprimido" -- which means "squeezed" -- is the best way to order fresh-squeezed orange juice.  The verb "exprimir" has three main meanings in Spanish: 1) To squeeze, 2) To wring (as in wringing out clothing), and 3) To exploit (as in squeezing or wringing all that's possible out of workers, for example).

Related to "exprimir" at the root is "imprimir," which means, 1) To print (as in printing out pages of a document), 2) to stamp or to impress, and 3) To give (as in to transmit or pass on to). Here are some examples.

Para imprimir, hacer clic aquí
To print, press here

Vamos a comprar unos diarios impresos. Estoy harto de leer por Internet.
Let's buy some printed newspapers. I'm sick of reading online.

Colombia is famous for growing and exporting a product that some people around the world are hopelessly addicted to. Yes, rich Colombian coffee is what we're talking about. In the first installment of this series of videos on Colombia's coffee industry, we get a guided tour of a storehouse for the coffee beans.

"La Bodega," is the title of this video tour, because "bodega" is the word for the coffee beans' "warehouse." It's interesting that "bodega" has its own entry in English dictionaries as a wine shop, a barroom, a storehouse for maturing wine and a small grocery store in an urban area. Well, "bodega" means all of those things in its native Spanish as well, and on top of that it's a place to store coffee beans. The etymology of the word goes all the way back to the Latin "apotheca," storehouse, which itself is descended from the Greek "apotheke" (αποθήκη), which also means storehouse. The more modern definitions concerning wine and groceries evolved from the places where wine or supplies were stored to be sold. And now you know.

Bueno, ésta es la bodega de Almacafé.
Well, this is Almacafé's warehouse.
Caption 06, Una Historia de Café - La Bodega

Ok. So what do we find in La Bodega? Each section of this bodega holds up to 20,000 sacks ("sacos") of coffee beans, each from a particular region ("departamento") of Colombia. We learn that the entire bodega holds approximately 200,000 sacks of coffee beans collected from the harvest ("la cosecha"). Impressed? That's quite a coffee buzz.

Soon, we'll post the videos that bring you into the laboratory where the Colombian coffee beans become cups of Joe.

If you recall, in the past we've discussed the use of estar harto when you are "fed up" with something of someone. We also talked about the use of aguantar to indicate that your tolerance is still intact. Well, we hope you're not yet sick of this subject! In this episode of Muñeca Brava Mili introduces us to yet two more ways to test our limits.

Mirá, flaco, la verdad que no te banco y me voy a ir, porque no te soporto.
Look, dude, the truth is I can't stand you and I'm going to leave, because I can't put up with you.
[Caption 41, Muñeca Brava > La Apuesta > 4]

¡Estoy harta de Juan! No lo banco más.
I´m sick of Juan! I can´t stand him anymore.