Water

When I arrived in our apartment one of the first things I learned, is that trash goes down a black hole and is never seen again and - where the spray against bugs is deposited. It's not about kind flies or old spiders, it's because of the ants. And have a guess what they're looking for. I absolutely understand if somebody needs an apple, chocolate or a hug, but they are were search for water and are not a bit interested in any cookies or chocolate I have in my room.

Lake Cachuma as one of Santa Barbara's water reservoirs (wikipedia).

In understood that they don't need the luxury products like chocolate from the world I live in, but the very basic necessities of life. Unfortunately, I left a sponge which was not wrung out in our kitchen sink and one hour later I had to kill about 200 ants (of course I felt there were at least 1000!) :( - and I'm a vegetarian.

In general, water is some kind of a problem over here. In every hotel there are small signs telling you to be careful with water. The Lake Cachuma and Bradbury Dam are an example for the water sources of Santa Barbara; both are about 25 miles away. Water from the State Water Project is even up to about 100 miles away. Due to the drought a desalination plant is going to be built which is supposed to cover about 30% of the water usage.

And Santa Barbara still has "only" 92 000 residents. Just think of LA with about 11.8 million people!

However, there's still enough water for the pool at the UCSB. I've been there today and I love water :-)