"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." from Henry David Thoreau's Walden

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Out of EcoHouse

It's been almost a year since I started this blog.

Friday evening I checked out of the EcoHouse and moved in to my summer home, where I'll be living with two other Macalester students and my boyfriend. It was bitter sweet, saying goodbye to everyone. But I know that this is going to be a fantastic summer, and next semester will be a fantastic experience. I'll be studying abroad in Paris, France, interning with the Ministère d'Ecologie, Energie, et Development Durable. Essentially, this is the department of Ecology, Energy, and Sustainable Development. I'm incredibly excited for this opportunity.

When we left the house, we left it spotlessly clean (thank you very much Julia). Everything put away, everything empty of our things, I realized that the EcoHouse is just a house. It's the people inside of it that make it special, that make the experience unique. We are the ones who make the house sustainable, not just the bits of plaster and steel that hold the house together.

I'm very excited for next year's house. I believe that they will continue to add to this house and give back even more than we did.

After moving in to my new house, I realized it was void of many essential things, such as soap. I decided to make a target run. Off of the shelves, I pulled the familiar things that I've gotten used to buying. 7th generation products, biodegradable soap, and then... a swiffer. I'm not entirely clear on the eco-friendliness of a swiffer, but it's likely questionable at best. For example you're using a disposable sheet to sweep, which doesn't necessarily biodegrade and therefore adds to the mountains of waste we bury every year. But you can use it to mop the floor with a wet pad, which therefore uses far less water than actual mopping... But this isn't my house (I'm only living here for the summer) and I needed an easy way to clean, so I excused this purchase.

Am I going to keep up my ecofriendly habits? I certainly hope so. But I haven't set up a compost pile yet (there isn't a good place in this yard for a chicken wire one, and I can't afford a plastic one. I cringe every time I throw out an egg shell. Taking short showers and turning off lights is just common sense, I have to pay my own utilities now.

This is going to be a challenging summer for my sustainable habits. But I think it will add a new flavor to this blog, one that has been pretty preachy, will now be a lot more about my successes and failures.
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