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Welcome to the Travel Transformation Podcast with me, Jessica Grace Coleman. This is a podcast where we talk all things travel and all things transformation. This is part two of my Basque Country Coliving Round-up, because it went on far too long and I had lots of notes, so I decided to put it into two episodes for you. So yeah, if you haven't listened to the first part, please go and listen to that first because this would not make much sense otherwise.

I'm going to continue with my notes from the second two weeks of my stay in the coliving villa. So, last time I stayed for a whole month and they did it for a whole month, and this time they did it for six weeks. But I wanted my own room, which is a lot more expensive than the quad room, which is a shared room, and I couldn't really justify the price for six weeks. And, also ,I know that it's very intense experience from last year and four weeks is a lot. Six weeks… I'm not sure if I could do it. 

There was one lady who did the whole six weeks, Isa, and I think she enjoyed it, but yeah, four weeks is my limit in this kind of environment. And I think even if they do it next year – I think they're going to do either one or two and I'm not sure if they're going to go back to the same place, but it's going to be a similar sort of vibe – I think I might even do it for two weeks because when you're trying to work, play, socialise… obviously I'm trying to do this podcast and all my other stuff that I don't really get paid for… on top of trying to explore and travel… it's a lot. So I think I would do it for two weeks. But yeah, still really enjoyed it. Great to do. 

Maybe I should talk a bit more about the house so you have more of an idea of what it's like, because the whole point of this is to give you information and an idea of what it's like if you wanted to do this kind of thing. 

I think I mentioned in the first episode, but if not, the company is called Sun and Co – I will put the link in the show notes. They have their main house in Javea in Spain, and the past two years they have done this pop-up, and they’re considering doing two next year, maybe in different places. So I would highly recommend. It is an extremely unique experience, and even though it was a lot and even though I got sick and even though I feel like I need to sleep for months now, it was all worth it. 

So, yeah, the house. It's this big villa in the Basque Country in this little place called Gautegiz Arteaga. I'm probably screwing up the pronunciation. It's near a little village called Kortezubi, which is where the cheesecake place is. And Basondo, the animal shelter, is there as well.

It's on a road, but I kind of got used to the cars going past. 

So it's three floors. You've got a big garden, a big pool as well. There's like a garage and like a pool house that we can't really go in… it’s a big property. So, on the ground floor – although I think Americans call it the first floor – anyway, the ground floor, you go in, there's like an entranceway where you put your shoes. And we had our keys; we had about seven pairs of keys and you signed them out whenever you took one and signed it back in when you brought it back. They used the windows to draw on with pen to create our schedule for the next week, to list the masterminds and things we wanted. There was a place where you could put your social media handles, your LinkedIn profile, all that good stuff. 

So, you go into the entrance hall. Then there was a little bit with a piano. Then there was the main bit downstairs, which had the long dining table. And then there's two little nooks, with little sofas. Very cute. And then you could go out onto the deck, down into the pool. There are deck chairs everywhere and you can walk around the garden, all very nice. 

Then there's sort of a corridor downstairs. You can go through into the kitchen, which is quite big. And then a little sort of dining nook next to that as well. Then you have the utility room with the laundry – the washing machine and a dryer and places to hang out your clothes. This was where we put our recycling and all that kind of stuff. So there's one room downstairs with an en suite. I managed to snag it for the last three days because Doci left to go to a work thing and I snagged it.

I had tried to get an en suite originally after having some issues with the bathroom last year, and suddenly they were all booked, but I managed to get it for three days. So there's one room downstairs, and that is right next to the road, and you can hear everyone downstairs when they're staying up late and partying. So there is that, but it has its own en suite, so swings and roundabouts.

So the second, the middle floor, the first floor – or the second floor to Americans – has the focus room, which had some tables set up for working, monitors, all that kind of stuff. But it was also the TV room. So there was a sofa and a TV, and that's where we had a lot of skillshares and things because you could plug your laptop into the TV, do a presentation there, and you could watch movies and things in the evening.

Also on that floor, there was a sort of communal bathroom, but it only really needed to be used by one of the single rooms, which didn't have its own bathroom. Then there was the deluxe room, which was the fanciest room in the house, and the price reflected that. So it was its own room, its own bathroom, and it had a whole other extra room with like a sofa and a desk and all that kind of stuff. Then there was a twin room with its own bathroom. 

There's another single room with the en suite. There was my room, which was a single room, no bathroom, and there was a quad room, which had four people sleeping in there. Not bunk beds, though, so it's quite a nice room. Great view from that room. And then the other communal bathroom, which was shared by the quad room and me. So that's five people. So as well as the road, which I got used to, that was the only thing wrong with that house.

Because if you're in the quad room or in that room upstairs, you're sharing with five people. And if everyone's trying to get ready at the same time, you do end up waiting a while sometimes to go in the shower or whatever, and that adds up over a month. You can go downstairs and use the other communal shower, but when your stuff's already in the bathroom and all that stuff… first-world problems, but that's one thing I would change if I could – like I said, literally the only thing wrong with the house. So that's really not bad at all. 

Okay, so hopefully that gives you more of an idea of the layout and where people slept and that kind of thing. And now I can get on with my notes. 

Okay, so, Saturday, 13th May. I got up not very early and was still getting ready when the cleaners arrived and tried to clean my room. I headed downstairs and we had a sort of family breakfast using leftovers from the night before. Then people dispersed. It was the sort of changeover. There were a few people in my group who were staying for the last four weeks and the lady stayed for the whole six weeks, but a lot of people left and arrived. The cleaners were everywhere. I'd planned on going out for the day, but the weather wasn't great. 

That's the thing about the Basque Country – it's beautiful, but it is very rainy, which means it's very green and lovely, but it's not typical Spanish weather. Though we did have some really nice sunny days as well. So I did some admin, had a nap, and then people started arriving so I went downstairs to meet them. I had some wine. Caitlin arrived – who I knew from last year's pop-up, and she came to England last year as well. We had an Airbnb in Stratford, so it was nice to see her again. 

Then people started getting ready for the barbecue, which was like a welcome barbecue. I helped set the table, as part of the cleaning crew, because I am not good at cooking and specifically not good at barbecues because I don't eat meat, so I have no idea what to do with that. So we had dinner and more wine, then my friend Deanna from Canada came around eleven. Caitlin's from New Jersey. Deanna's from Canada. It was nice to see her too. I knew her last year from the Javea house, we did a week in Devon together as well, and we'd planned to travel together for a week after that before I came to Switzerland.

So the new people seemed nice, and I already knew some of them, and we watched a bit of Eurovision, though we missed the main acts and it was mainly the judging bit and the people who had never watched Eurovision before did not know what to make of it, which I can understand, but it was funny seeing and hearing Graham Norton with a Spanish voiceover. I went to bed around one.

The next day we got up and went for a hike, well a walk, around the area, though we had to wait for some people so we didn't leave till about 1.00 p.m. I went to see Colin while I was waiting. It was raining off and on, but it was still a really nice walk. We saw lots of animals –dogs, sheep, cows, goats, chickens – lots of cool murals on the buildings, which is interesting because it was really modern street art in a really traditional little Basque Country village. We walked through the forest, up the steep bit to the caves, stopped for a drink and a pintxo at the bar place that I've been to before – it's really nice, and is next to the animal shelter – and then we went down to the farm and saw Colin before heading back to the house. 

A few of us sat out on the deck in deckchairs and talked for a while. Me, Sabi, Caitlin and Minou. We talked about nicknames. Caitlin told everyone my name was Jester, thanks to my friend Lauren from home, which she knew from last year. We gave Caitlin the nickname La Mafiosa because she's from New Jersey and I think has Italian heritage. Sabi was telling us about a bike race that happens in Romania, which is where she's from, called The Romaniacs. So we gave her the nickname The Romaniac. But the nickname that stuck with Sabi was obviously Wasabi. 

Then we had our food meeting. I was put in a team with Sabi and Minou – Minou’s from the Netherlands. We decided to do Thai curry after a lot of the options that we tried to look at, the local supermarket didn't have the ingredients we needed, so that took a while. Then we had some dinner, some wine, talked, and I played card games with Isa, Caitlin, Deanna and Doci, who is from the US. I did some washing, then I went to bed around midnight.

Monday the 15th May. I got up at 8.30, got ready and then the water went off, which is scary in a house of 12/13 people. But it only lasted for a while, then it came back. I worked in the living room with Toks, who is from London but who lives in Edinburgh, so nice to have another Brit there, and Caitlin joined us. I had a break to visit Colin and then we had a family meeting and I did a public service announcement about Colin, encouraging others to visit him, explaining the situation – which I won't go into; you can hear all about it in episode 53 –then I went upstairs, did a bit more work before dinner, got quite a bit done, and again, it was almost 10.00 p.m. by the time we had dinner. Spanish time. 

We had some wine, talked a bit, and then went to bed. I did some reading in bed first. Denis had recommended a book, Choose, about choosing your target market and your ideal client and all that stuff, niching down, so a lot of people in the house were reading that. And I went to bed around one.

Tuesday, 16th May. I worked in the dining room again with Toks and Caitlin and Deanna was in the little fireplace nook. we worked, had lunch, and I had a talk with Fer about Colin. He was going to go with me to talk to Colin’s owner, if we could find him. Again, you can listen to all this in episode 53.

I did a lot of QuickBooks stuff. I hate QuickBooks and accounting. I have an accountant, but there was stuff I'd been putting off, stuff I've been getting stuck on and stuff I'd inputted incorrectly and needed to sort out. I'd been putting it off for about a month, so I did that. That felt good to do that. We had an amazing family dinner and then I was on the cleaning team. And then a few of us just had wine and chilled out in the dining room on the table and I just talked with Caitlin, Deanna, Stan and Sabi. 

And, at this point, Stan – who is Slovakian but spends most of his time in Spain – apart from Fernando, who was the host, who didn't actually live in the house, he was staying in a place a few minutes’ walk away, in their own apartment. The hosts needed their own space, which I totally get. But apart from Fernando, Stan was the only guy in the last two weeks. 

We were talking about wine. Deanna's really into wine – I interviewed her for my podcast. You can find her on episode 51, Wine and Travel Chat with Wineisseur, Deanna Lowe – and yeah, we were talking about Disney films and princesses and Mean Girls while Stan was just sitting there, drinking more and more wine, possibly to put up with all the girly chat, but I think he did very well. And we went to bed around one, but it was like 1.30 by the time I'd managed to get in the bathroom. So yeah, more waiting around for that. 

Wednesday, 17th May, I got up feeling tired and slightly hungover. Nothing new. Got to work in the dining room. I went to see Colin with Doci, introduce Doci to Colin, and then I went to meet Colin's owner. And, again, you can hear all about this in episode 53. He was a lovely man. He told us Colin was called Perico, which is actually slang for cocaine in Spanish, and he's five years old, so a baby, really. Sadly, he did not go for our sheep and fence offer. Again, you can hear it all in episode 53. 

I came back. I had a Zoom interview for my podcast, did a load of podcast admin, and then we had a mastermind at 5.30 with Deanna outside, and then it was my cooking team's turn to make dinner. And we had cashew curry, massaman curry, homemade naan bread, and fruit crumble. I mainly did chopping, rolling dough, and setting the table. Everyone liked the dinner. We had some wine and then I went to bed around eleven. It had been a long, pretty stressful day with Colin and doing interviews and doing cooking, and yeah, I went to bed about eleven. 

Thursday, 18th May, I woke up at 5.30 and it took me ages to get back to sleep and I didn't wake up until nine and didn't get into the bathroom until 10.15. So a very slow morning. I did some work downstairs, some washing, then I came up, did some more work, and had a nap. There was a mastermind, but I skipped it because I had so much work to do and I worked in my room until dinner time. We had noodles in peanut sauce. Really good. And I refrained from drinking today. Something to celebrate.

I’d just like to point out I don't drink this much usually, but when you're in this situation, when you're having family dinners… it's sort of rude not to have a glass of wine with dinner when you're in this situation. And wine is so cheap in Spain, in the Basque Country. And yeah, it's just easy to keep drinking after dinner when people are just hanging out, chilling, talking, doing games. I don't usually drink this much and, like I say, I did drink a lot less in the last two weeks. We played some games, which was fun – Blank and Contact, which are word games – with the whole group, with Fernando leading, it was really fun. But then I went to bed, even though most people stayed up another half an hour or an hour playing more games; I just needed sleep. 

Friday, 19thMay, I got up semi-early so I could be first in the bathroom. So, yeah, from this point onwards, I started getting up way earlier than I usually do, so I could get in the bathroom first. And I knew that it was kind of annoying to some of the other people, but you snooze, you lose. And I had to get up and get to work, so I decided to get up way earlier than usual. I worked until about 3.00 p.m., did some editing, then headed to the cheesecake place with Doci, Caitlin, Deanna, Sabi and Choko, who was our new housemate, who came sort of last minute; she came a couple of days after the second week switch-around. 

We had cake and beer. Then we went to the farm where you can get milk, butter, and several other things. We couldn't see anyone, though, but we saw lots of dogs. One of them was sort rolling around the floor, really cute, but in one of those ‘draw me like one of your French girls’ Titanic moments, which was quite funny. And we saw lots of cows, including a really cute baby cow. Then we saw Colin before heading back. 

Then at 7.30, we left for Guernica, which is the nearest town. It's like a ten-minute drive in a car or an hour-long walk, or 20 minutes, say, on the bus. So some people walked, some people, including me, got the bus. And when we got there, the streets were packed. Like, I've never seen Guernica busy at all, this year or last year, but the streets were absolutely rammed. There was some kind of festival on, there was an orchestra playing pop and rock songs, and there was some kind of wood chopping competition with hot guys in vests, chopping wood. So we stayed and watched that for a bit. 

Then we got some pintxos and drinks. Then we went to a bar called Picasso and carried on drinking. Like I said, alcohol… wine in particular… is very cheap. Cider is very cheap. You can get a little glass of cider for €1. And that's when things started going very wrong – and it's not like the cider we have in the UK, it’s strong stuff. And then I spotted they had some Mahon gin, which was gin with a little windmill on the label that I recognised from when I went to Menorca with my family a few years ago. Actually, it was in 2014, because it was right before I decided to quit my job and go full in with my editing business. I decided on that holiday – possibly while drinking this exact gin – so I had to have some. So me and Caitlin got a glass of gin. I had it with lemonade, and this guy put these little frozen ice balls with strawberries in. It was all very beautiful. 

We went back – with some taxi drama, as usual. There aren't many taxis around Guernica and our little village, so it's always a bit of a drama to get back. Then we carried on drinking and we ended up having an impromptu kitchen party. So we usually hang out in the dining room, in one of the little nooks, or outside. But for some reason we were all in the kitchen drinking, playing games, listening to music, dancing, and it was really, really fun. Then everyone went to bed, apart from me, Isa and Stan. We went to the living room nook. Oh, Deanna was there for a bit, too. We hung out there drinking till about 4.30, and it was about five before I got to bed. It was really fun.

We were talking about paralysis demons because Stan and I experienced that, which is terrifying in the moment, but quite funny to talk about. I thought it was an old hag, and my brother’s had it too. He was being abducted by aliens. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google paralysis demon – sleep paralysis demon ¬– or the hag phenomenon, I think it's called. It's just a thing that happens sometimes, usually to younger people, like teenagers, when you're on the brink of sleep or the brink of waking up, I can't remember. And you feel like you can't move and you hallucinate that some kind of entity is lying on you. It's horrible. But we were talking about that. I was really drunk. I tend to talk about weird things when I'm drunk. And yeah, I went to bed. 

And then my note for Saturday 20th May is ‘so hungover, in bed all day.’ The others went to a fiesta, like a fish fiesta, which was really famous. A lot of the guys went to it last year as well, apart from me, Doci and Toks. We stayed in the house. I slept, I got up to eat, I watched a bit of Netflix. I basically slept all day. Like, I was done. It was the hangover, definitely. It was definitely the gin Stan gave me. Also, all the ciders and gins and beers and wines that had been consumed before. Not good, not responsible drinking at all.

That was the only time I was that hungover, though, and that prompted several days of absolutely no booze. So it was a good thing in the end, but yeah, I think I was hungover, but I was also still a bit ill and still a bit worn out. Socially burnt out, work burnt out. I needed a day where I just stayed in bed.

So Sunday, the next day, I sorted some stuff out in my room. I got on with some admin and travel stuff and reading. I booked my flight home that I needed to book, life admin, travel admin. I had a pretty lazy day. I went for a walk with Deanna around five. We went to see Colin, went to the farm to see the dog there, then we walked to the cheesecake place. It was Sober Sunday, so we just had a lemonade before walking back along the boardway, the boardwalk. 

Then we had our social events and food meeting, and I was in a group with Caitlin and Isa. We had some dinner. Caitlin made pasta for… well, it started out with making pasta for a few people, and then everyone else was like, Can I have some? It ended up being most of the house. We sat around and talked for a bit and then I went to bed early again – really needed it. 

Okay, so Monday, 22nd May, I got up early, did some washing, had breakfast, and worked from the dining room for most of the day before heading up to my room to work there for a bit. There was a skillshare on nonviolent communication, but I had a lot of work to do, so I missed it.

Then Deanna and I recorded a podcast episode in the chapel, where we talked a lot about wine. And she has her own podcast, the Wineisseur Podcast, so I think she's going to repurpose it on hers. So in the chapel while drinking her Dolce and Gabbana Sicilian Rose, which was in a very nice fancy bottle. That was really nice. And we talked for a bit in the chapel before going back down to dinner – and you can listen to that on episode 51, Wine and Travel Chat with Wineisseur, Deanna Lowe. 

So, for dinner, Liz and her team had done their own version of Sweet Green salad bar, which they have in the US, and it was amazing. Like, seriously good, so tasty. And it was nice to have really healthy, fresh things. We tended to have a lot of carbs in these dinners, so it was a really nice change. I hung around for a bit after dinner, talking, and went to bed around 11.30 – and I'm glad I did, because after that, a load of people hit the gin and hit the pool for a night swim. Way too cold for me and I was already in my cosy little bed. So, yeah, I'm glad I went to bed when I did. 

So, Tuesday 23rd, I got up early so I could go in the bathroom first, worked until one, then had a Zoom meeting with Germaine about Colin and Co., about how we can help Basondo, the animal shelter. We came up with some ideas, then I went to the cheesecake place with Caitlin and Doci. It was Doci's last day, leaving early, and Isa, Liz, Kinga and Stan were already there. We shared a slice of cheesecake, the last slice, had some coffees, went to say hi to Colin, then I went to my room to do some more work and record a couple of podcast episodes until it was time for Sabi’s mastermind in the focus room.

She was considering having a career change or a career break – like a sabbatical – and I got involved quite a bit. I found I had a lot to say, which doesn't happen very often for me in masterminds; I tend to just sit and listen and take everything in because there's always a lot to learn. But I know what it's like to be really unhappy in your job. Whenever I had jobs before, office jobs, retail jobs, I was just so unhappy, which is why I inevitably left and started working for myself. So I had a lot to say.

I worked in my room before dinner and then we had Pub Trivia Night, which was organised by Caitlin. Dinner was pasta, and an amazing gooey chocolate cake for dessert, made by Choko. Seriously good. Then we got into teams for trivia. I was with Stan and Isa and we called ourselves Team Paralysis Demon after our drunken early morning conversation at the weekend. It was a lot of fun, even if we did come joint last. We laughed a lot. Really great idea to have a pub trivia night.

Then we then hung out a bit more. Deanna was trying to learn Spanish phrases, and while we were talking I took the time to post some stories on Instagram. It's always quite hard to keep up with social media – if you do that kind of stuff – because you just want to be in the moment, but I did try and post pictures every so often. And then I messaged the Introvert Club to see if they wanted to meet up somewhere this or next year, which they did. That would be really cool. Then I said bye to Doci, who was leaving early the next morning, and went to bed.

Wednesday 24th I got up at seven, even though I really hadn't slept. I was knackered. I knew Doci would have left by then, so I went and moved all my stuff into the room downstairs, the en suite. I'd asked Fer if I could upgrade for the last few days and he said yes. So I moved there and Deanna moved into my room from the quad room, leaving three people in the quad room. So it all worked out quite well.

I sorted all my stuff out, then I worked in the dining room. Then I went to work in my new room. I had a much-needed nap, did some more podcast work and other stuff, and then it was time for me and my cooking team to do dinner. We did salmon, and mushroom patties for the veggies, couscous salad, roast potatoes, and broccoli. And Sabi had made a cheesecake for dessert for everyone who had their birthdays in May, which was Liz, Sabi, and Minou. We all sang happy birthday it was all very nice. I sat around talking for a bit, but I was knackered, so I went and watched a bit of Netflix and went to sleep. 

Thursday 25th. I wanted to lie in but I woke up early, then I got up and got ready in my own bathroom, which was a game changer. Got breakfast, did some work in my room. It had a desk because Doci had stolen one from the hallway, so that was amazing. Then I went and worked outside for a bit. The filming guy was here, filming promotional material for the pop-up and for the house in general. So he was filming people working. They wanted to promote it as a wellness thing, so they did a yoga session and walking and all that stuff, having dinner, so he was hanging around. I knew him from last year, so that was quite nice to see him. 

It's one of those things where if you know someone's filming, and I was just working on my laptop, and you’re trying to look natural and you just look like the most unnatural person in the world… So who knows if he'll use any footage of me, because I'm just sitting there trying to act natural and not doing anything. 

But then we had a skillshare with Minou teaching us about regeneration and sustainability. She took us on a ten-minute guided meditation, going from the start of the Big Bang all the way up to present day and seeing how the world has changed and how tiny our bit in the universe actually is. Very thought-provoking. Then Caitlin and I needed to go to the ATM, which is like a ten-minute walk from the place, and there's a bar nearby, so we had a quick drink before dinner. 

Dinner was amazing. So, Fer was also being filmed in the kitchen, cooking. He has his own little business on the side, doing a cooking demonstration pop-up thing every month, like a vegan feast. And so he was also being filmed so he could use that footage for his business. But he had been in the kitchen for like six, seven hours preparing all this – with some help from people – and it was incredible. And we also had drunk apples and vegan ice cream for dessert. So, apples and some booze and ice cream. It was so good. Everyone was so full. Then we played a few games on the table.

So Friday 26th was the last full day in the house. And time goes very weirdly in colivings. It's kind of like COVID time when we were in lockdown. Every day seemed very long, but the weeks seemed to go by very quickly. It was that kind of thing. 

I woke up around eight, had breakfast, did some work in my room, and then I decided to work in my room all day because I had a lot I wanted to do before the next week when I knew I wouldn't be doing as much work because I’d be doing more travelling and exploring and hanging out.

Fer was meant to lead an ecstatic dance, which is like dancing outside – sober – for hours, not my kind of thing. And I was still working, but a lot of people were also working and sorting stuff out, so I think it got cancelled. So I continued working and packing and sorting and then it was wine tasting time.

I had been staying off the wine more than usual, but for the last night, Deanna led a wine tasting. It's like a skillshare over dinner with some charcuterie board-type food. And it was amazing. The food, the wine… When we'd recorded our podcast, we had joked that we should take a photograph, like a picture of the Last Supper with all of us on our last night during dinner and the wine tasting. And we did. Fernando was Jesus in the middle. He put a scarf over his shoulder and he always wears this – I don't know if it’s wooden – necklace thing, and he just looked very Jesus-like. He did the pose and everything. And then we posed around him and we were all on one long table outside, which was full of food and wine glasses and everything. And it looked so good. It was really, really good. I posted it on my social media when I posted about the episode with Deanna Lowe, which was episode 51, so you can go and check that out. 

It was such a good night, drinking, eating, talking. We were sitting outside because it was nice, and the clean-up took a while, but it was worth it. And then I went to bed. 

So Saturday 27th was the day we left the villa. I got up, I packed, I sorted stuff, and then I went to say goodbye to Colin, which was very sad. I went with Caitlin and Sabi. Then I finished packing. We didn't have to leave the house by a certain time because I believe they had it for another night – Fernando was going to stay and sort some stuff out – so we headed to Bilbao then.

So, originally I was meant to go travelling with Deanna for a week before I needed to leave for Switzerland, and we decided to go to Bilbao for two nights and then San Sebastian for five days. And then lots of other people had either already decided to go to Bilbao for two days or they heard that we were and they changed their flights, or they hadn't booked their flights yet, so they booked them to be on the Monday after going to Bilbao for the weekend. So that was where we decided to go.

There were a few of us going, but I won't get into that now because I'm going to do another episode on our pop-up spin-off – Germaine said it sounds like a spin-off. We called it pop-up two or pop-up lite. But yeah, it was basically a spin-off because most of us went and I'm going to do a separate episode on that because we had such a great time and did so much stuff, but I'm going to leave that for another time. 

So I hope this gave you some idea – this episode and the previous one – about what it's like to live in a coliving villa. I highly recommend it. It is a lot. It can be daunting and overwhelming, I totally get it, but I went last year and was very scared. I went this year and I was a lot less scared because I'd already been. I knew a lot of the people, I knew the place, I knew the format of all the professional events and social events. And yeah, you've got to just throw yourself into this experience as much as you can while also giving yourself time to rest, relax, and recharge. And I was a lot better at that this year than I was last year.

If I go next year again, my goal will be to drink less – because that affects everything, and you just get caught up in the social aspect and having fun and talking and drinking with dinner… and yeah, that will be my thing next year. More boundaries, more JOMO instead of FOMO, and drinking less. 

So, yeah, if you have any questions about the pop-up experience or coliving in general, or being a digital nomad in general, you can let me know. I'm on Instagram @traveltransformationcoach, or you can email me at info@traveltransformationcoach.com. 

I hope this gave you some insight into what it's like to be in a coliving villa for a month. And, like I said, a lot of coliving places aren't like this. They're more in the middle of happening tourist areas and stuff like that. So there are bars and restaurants and beaches and nightclubs and all kinds of stuff to occupy your time. 

The coliving pop-up is completely different, a unique experience. Like I said, you're kind of in this little bubble. These people become like your family. You know them inside out. After a few days, you feel like you've known them forever, which can be good or bad! It's mostly good. I met up with so many people I met in the villa last year and have plans to again, as well as people this year.

And yeah, it's like an experience like no other, really. You get to know people on a far deeper level than you do back home, usually. You're thrown into this experience where everyone is really open and honest and really into self-development and personal growth and can talk about hard things and can share stuff about their life and can help people with their experiences.

And it's just a really great, worthwhile experience. It's a lot. I need to sleep now for a month, but I would highly, highly, highly recommend it. Sun & Co. is the company. There are lots of other colivings out there, lots of people doing more pop-up type things now as well. So give it a google and give it a go. Thanks for listening, and until next time, I'll catch you on the flip side, bye!

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