My feet rest on the bumpy, moist ground. It has rained here a lot the past few days, much more than is typical for sunny Andalucía – people are torn between despair (at the incessant, dismal, wet gloom) and joy (that their drought-ridden land is finally blessed by some water). My “roots” encounter almost entirely the latter, a jubilation at the moistness in the ground. I imagine them talking with the other roots, excitedly chattering, their thirst finally quenched. I do wonder what form communication between roots takes; is it a true communication, via the secretion of chemicals into the soil? Or am I anthropomorphizing the plants too much? Perhaps it’s a “communication” completely different from my definition of the word. Although it’s a somewhat daft thought, it’s strange to think that there’s a whole other world of water tables and decomposition and tectonic plates below my feet, one I only learn of in pictures and readings.

The world of Cordoba’s energy and water resources is almost equally obscure to me. Before doing research, all I knew was that the cost of electricity here is high. Both Wellesley’s PRESHCO program and my host family impressed upon us the importance of saving energy by turning off the lights whenever possible, using the heater minimally, and always unplugging whatever cords are plugged into the outlets. The house I live in, unlike some other houses in Cordoba, does have a heater – but it has no air conditioning. Unlike the majority of houses in America, the houses here are simply built to sustain heat. From researching a bit, I learned that Andalucía, the region of Spain in which I’m living, uses a lot of renewable energy. The cities are powered by multiple large, solar power plants and some biomass power plants, which use byproducts of olive oil production (a funny connection, because my host “dad” works for an olive oil company). There’s also a thermosolar power station between Cordoba and Sevilla, and it’s the first station that works 24 hours a day! All of this information, though wonderful to hear, left me wondering why Cordoba is in such an energy crisis. The answer to this is still a bit nebulous, but it seems that Spain’s prioritization of sustainable energy is recent, a new set of regulations passed just last year. It’s somewhat discomforting to know that I’m currently living in a country that is actively prioritizing sustainable living and development, but that in a few months I’ll return home to a government that is actively working against sustainable living.