The simple, bare necessities

"Hay que conservar el agua," my Spanish mother told me after my failed attempt to hide the shock on my face when she explained to me the shower rules. The regimen, she explained, is as follows: Turn the water off to shampoo, turn it back on to rinse, turn it off to condition and wash your body, and then turn it back on to rinse. I am sure you can all imagine my surprise when I realized my leisurely 20-minute showers to which I had become accustomed on a daily basis had abruptly come to an end. Well, I thought to myself, when in Spain one must learn to shower like a Spaniard. Shortly after, I dared to take my first shower, mentally practicing on my way to the bathroom to determine how I could be most efficient with the water I was allotted. As I turned the water off to suds my body, I realized that this method of showering was really not a burden at all; in fact, it was perfectly affective, yet minimal. During that seven-minute shower, it occurred to me that although we are in the midst of a "Going Green" phenomenon with our trendy, reusable grocery bags and Energy Star technology, maybe we are still missing the bigger picture.

Take the issue of washing clothes, for example. How many times do we change into our pajamas at night and automatically toss our clothes into the hamper? How often do we assume that because we have worn something once, it must be dirty? Just think how many fewer times you would have to trek down to the laundry room with an overflowing laundry basket if you wore your shirts two, or even three, times. Practically unheard of, I know, but during my two months here I have adapted and realized that re-wearing clothes is not only possible, but also completely sanitary. In Spain, clothes dryers are also rare household appliances. Instead, all clothes are hung and air-dried. If you think about it, natural air makes sense-it does not require anything but a surface top or a string, and it works just as well as the machine, but without the possibly of shrinking your clothes. Although I know that almost every household and dorm now have energy efficient washers and dryers in an attempt to protect the environment, we still have yet to change our behavior with regards to our water and energy consumption.

The very first time I flicked on the light in a bathroom stall in Spain, I found myself in complete darkness within a matter of seconds. After a brief moment of panic and, of course, some awkward flailing in the direction of the switch, I realized that the lights were set on timers. About every thirty seconds or so, the lights would automatically turn off. Originally, I was rather annoyed with the bathroom timers and rightfully so, as they can be rather inconvenient. After a little while though, and once I learned to remember where the switch is located for a quick turn-on, the hassle faded and the whole concept became clear: you only need the light when you are in there, so there is no reason for it to be on all the time. Unlike the Spaniards, we are not on automatic pilot to turn things off when we no longer need them. Instead, lights and televisions are left on for hours and hours without anyone in the room. Ask yourself, when was the last time you turned the lights off in your room when you went to dinner? Or, how often do you have to turn the light on in your dorm bathroom? The answer is never. Sure, we can buy the newest energy saving light bulbs, but will that remind us that we still need to do our part?

It is safe to say that Spaniards definitely do their part when it comes to walking. That is actually one of the things that I love most about being here-people are not afraid to walk. By walk, I do not mean to the bus stop or to where their car is parked, but rather to wherever they have to go. They walk to the grocery store, to the pharmacy, to get coffee, or to go out to dinner, and in all kinds of weather. If you were to add up all the steps I have taken since I arrived in Spain, I would probably be half way back to Worcester by now. After all of that, the thought of walking across the Holy Cross campus seems almost trivial. Maybe we should think next time before we complain about walking from Mulledy to Kimball for dinner on a windy, winter night, and remember how most Spanish university students walk half an hour to school every day, sometimes four times a day, and think nothing of it. And the next time you get in your car on Caro Street to drive to the gym, ask yourself why, even with the latest craze of fuel-efficient hybrid cars and our knowledge of car pollution, we still feel the need to drive every chance we get.

I suppose one can argue that the way Spaniards and Americans live are fundamentally different. One country takes a siesta from two to four o'clock p.m. every afternoon for lunch, while the other eats lunch in the car while rushing to a meeting. While one country uses Sunday as a day of rest, the other uses Sunday as a day to "catch up." Although I agree with all that, I would also have to add another glaring difference between the two cultures. Spaniards have had a longer and greater tradition of environmental awareness and consciousness than Americans, and their style of living with relation to energy and water is proof of that. In America, instead of adjusting our lifestyles, we invent eco-friendly technology that allows us to maintain our wasteful ways without suffering the same consequences. If anything, we continue to be even more careless because we assume these machines will make up for our ignorance. All we have to do is take shorter showers, wear our clothes more than once, turn off the lights, or even opt for two feet rather than four wheels. Just think how much more we would save if we, as Americans, only learned how to master the basics of necessity.