PE 12/15 Ready for Buenos Aires

I’m still a little annoyed you pulled the wool over my eyes about how long we’ll be staying in Buenos Aires. You know big cities aren’t up my alley[하1] .

* up one’s alley: suited to one’s tastes

ex> Polka music isn’t up my alley, but my dad loves it.

Come on. At less than three million people, Buenos Aires isn’t exactly gargantuan, despite being known as “the Paris of South America.”

* gargantuan: extremely large

ex> Arnold always has a gargantuan appetite when he wakes up.

Okay, professor. I’ll let you split hairs on population statistics if you tell me what we’re going to do there.

* split hairs: to argue about unimportant details

ex> If you want to split hairs, I’m actually eighteen and a half, not nineteen.

Well, we’ve been living on the cheap for weeks, so I thought we’d have a taste of the high life for a change.

* on the cheap: economically (usually excessively)

ex> The roof was replaced on the cheap, and now it’s leaking.

* high life: extravagant or lavish living

ex> The couple lived the high life until their money ran out.

You’re as much a music and architecture buff as I am, so we could spend weeks there without ever getting bored. You’ll see.

* buff: one who is knowledgeable about and interested in a subject; an enthusiast

ex> Gord used to be overweight, but now he’s a fitness buff.

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 [하1]Also “right down one’s alley.” These idiom use “alley” in the sense of “one’s own province,” a usage dating from the early 1600s.