Energy

Yesterday we had a presentation about being responsible in the area of conservation, energy and recycling. There is an organization on campus that gave a little talk about how the school conserves our resources and how we should all strive to be managers that are cognizant of our world and its health.

Being here, I'm reminded how far Europe seems to be in front of the States when it comes to recycling and energy conservation. There are recycling posts on every corner for glass, which makes sense because they drink so much wine, and wine comes in glass bottles. Our apartment already has about 10 empty glass bottles to deposit. The drop off is minutes from our place. We recycle paper and plastic at our apartment, in two different containers, and at some gas stations, if you take back the bottles, they give you money. Like California a bit I suppose.

Now about the lights. It takes some getting used to walking in hallways here because I will be walking and all of a sudden the lights go out. They have the lights on timers, so you push the button to make them go on, and if you linger too long without pushing the button again, the lights go off. Makes sense really, because they have so many big windows here with natural light that most of the time I don't need the lights to see anyway.

On a completely random, somewhat unrelated note, the standard paper size (like copy paper) is about an inch longer than in the States. So I think the paper is 8 1/2 by 12. Random observation.