If you’re an adrenaline seeker, at Alpiness you can definitely find cool activities to satisfy your cravings. I’m talking about ice or rock climbing, or enjoying the numerous awesome Via Ferrata routes in the area. And, of course, ski touring during the winter season. But this post isn’t about all the breathtaking adventures, nor about the hikes – like the beautiful one to Lake Bleu which, by the way, I did this morning before starting the workday…
Here, I want to share all the wonderful weekly chill, cozy activities we experience at Alpiness Coliving. I feel like the relaxed post-work activities are the cherry on top of the adrenaline-pumping adventures.
Oh, before we dive in, a bit of context about me: I’m Giulia, and I’ve been volunteering here at Alpiness for about two months now. Saying I love it here wouldn’t do it justice! If you’re curious about what it’s like to volunteer and be part of the team, click here.
But now let’s dive into the Alpiness activities. Let’s go!
Gardening and… eating a lot of salad, unexpectedly!
Let’s start with an activity that’s quite new here: gardening “our” vegetable garden… but, wait, how did we end up with a vegetable garden at Alpiness?
Well, it’s all about community. And in this case, it’s not just the one we create within the house, but also the one we build with the people in the village. A neighbor had an unused grass garden and, seeing that we’re keen on new challenges, she proposed that we take it and create a cool veggie garden.
We couldn’t answer with anything other than a loud “YESS!” And here we are, with a big garden to take care of, learn about, and pick veggies from.
After only about a month, we’re smiling like kids with candy. The veggies are growing fast and strong. We have way more salad than expected and – surprise, surprise – we discovered we can’t eat salad for breakfast, lunch, and dinner… so we’re more than happy – and proud – to both share it with villagers and swap it for some fruits with a local shop.
Of course, every coliver can go pick veggies, and if they feel like it, they can have a gardening session. The “garden door” is always open when it’s about removing weeds! 😉 The soil is mega fertile, and as the salad grows fast, so do the weeds.
Pre-dinner yoga and lil bouldering sessions
So, let’s go on with one of the activities which is becoming a bit of a routine now. Before dinner, about a couple of times a week, we have a chill yoga session followed by a quick (but really fun) bouldering session.
We do yoga in the basement, putting videos on full screen on the television, which can be easily connected to every smartphone. The gym in the basement is equipped with mats, blocks, elastics, and everything you might need for a chill yoga session. And… Namaste!
Next to the gym with the TV, there’s a super cool bouldering gym (painted by @kiwie). So, after warming up with yoga, we head for a quick indoor bouldering session. For this, we use an app with an account dedicated to our Alpiness wall 😍. There, all the routes we can climb are listed: from beginners to advanced. And for those who feel confident enough, it’s also possible to add brand-new routes!
The gym in the basement is actually a new attraction here at Alpiness; it was built during the last renovations in May. Here, you can read more about it.
Board games for casual evenings and lively gatherings!
Talking about the renovations, it came to my mind the amazing book (and games) shelves. Because, yes, they were built by Mārcis during the latest renovations. Good job chico! They are located in the living room: the perfect place to grab a random game for a post-dinner session.
So, let’s be honest, most of the time I’m the most unfocused board game player, and people keep reminding me when it’s my turn (for the astrologers here: I’m a Pisces, nothing more to add), but I truly love those moments. And I adore how people from different countries bring new games they are passionate about, or introduce new rules to old ones.
Just to mention one game, we played Secret Hitler. Do you know it? If you don’t, discover it! It’s the perfect game to find out if your fellow colivers are good liars or not. It’s super useful; especially when you’ve got to trust them about how hard the next hike is going to be.
Movie nights on Monday
Another super chill but nice and cozy activity is movie nights. At the moment, we do it on Mondays on the big screen in the living room. It’s cool as at the cinema, but more comfy and cozy!
We have a wide variety of movies for all tastes. We’ve had some really nice and reflective movies, as well as climbing movies, and… a handsome actor movie! No joke! One night we had to choose among three hot actors’ movies. Uff, the temperature in the room went up, eh!
Movie night usually comes after dinner… but you gotta know how dinners are organized here! Let’s talk about it in the next paragraph…
Apericena, beer tasting and Fondue night
If you’d like to know about how family dinners are organized, click here. I also told about dinners in an article dedicated to how I organize my life as a celiac in the coliving space. But now, here, I want to talk about the fun part of it.
For our everyday family dinners, the idea is to have tasty but healthy food. But, from time to time, we go all out and prepare specialties! I’ll drop a few examples just to whet your appetite.
One Friday night, I organized an apericena. Have you ever heard about it? It’s really a thing in Milan and Turin in Italy. The name “apericena” is actually Italian. What is it? Fair question! It’s a middle way between the classical aperitivo and a dinner – in fact, in Italian, “cena” means dinner. I won’t go on talking about it because I could continue for quite a while…. But yeah, I just wanted to say, I organized apericena with Ella, another coliver. We had spritz (OFC!) and it was a lot of fun. I felt there was a different vibe compared to the everyday family dinners.
Another example of an alternative dinner was a beer tasting organized by Fabienne and Ben. I loved it and discovered a lot about beers! Even though (sadly) I can only drink the gluten-free ones. But, they were super cute and bought a couple of gluten-free beers just for me. I’m blessed! Thank you chicos, that means a loooot!
The last example I’ll mention here are Fondue nights. I mean, we’re in Switzerland, so we can’t miss Fondue nights. Most of the time, we’d (read: they – I have no idea how to prepare them yet) prepare both the classic original fondue and the tomato fondue typical of Valais, the area of Switzerland where Alpiness Coliving is located.
Spontaneous roundtables and skillshares
From time to time, we also have skillshares or roundtables. I love how the ideas come up spontaneously while talking with people. Nobody is forced to do or propose anything, but anytime we feel we have a common topic, we schedule a roundtable.
There was a spontaneous roundtable about SEO because, at that moment, many people in the house were working with it. SEO at the moment is tricky (read: annoying) and, with numerous changes happening in search engines, it can become overwhelming. To exchange opinions with people who have SEO knowledge but come from very different backgrounds – big agencies, travel blogs, small companies – was thrilling!
Another super super cool skillshare we had was about visual effects in movies. Alejandra, an enthusiastic volunteer, did it. She worked in the field for many years and she knows tons of insights. She shared curiosities that only someone who has lived behind the scenes of movies would know. Thanks a lot guapa, I loved it!
I’ll drop the last skillshare example before moving to the next chill colive activity. The coliver Thomas shared his experience and gave suggestions about emotional ergonomics. It’s a topic we should all know about! I won’t spoil it; you can check out his book, “The Vulnerable Man” by Thomas Anderson – isn’t “Thomas Anderson” just the perfect name for a writer?
Need more skillshare examples? You can find another MEGA TURBO one on Instagram. Check out this acro-skillshare post!
Wine-stormings and open hearts
If sharing knowledge and skills is cool, sharing support, care, and tips is even cooler!
Here I want to drop just one example of a wine-storming session we had that was particularly touching. A chica who was here – I’m so sad she left! – was planning to change her job. And this kind of move in life can be overwhelming and feel like it’s a huge decision to make. The questions arising were many: What do I want to do next? Do I want to be a full-time nomad or not? Is freelancing for me, or should I find a fully remote company? And so on.
Sharing thoughts and talking to fellow colivers in front of a glass of wine can be really therapeutic. Hearing stories from people who went through similar challenges before can provide confidence. And receiving practical information about personal finance from someone with tips can be invaluable.
A note. During wine-storming, there is only one thing banned: judgment. We don’t judge, and we put ourselves in the position of the person who is talking. The idea is to put all our empathy on the table and give the best suggestions we can with an open heart ❤️
Craft nights can be as therapeutic as meditation
We had a craft night filled with colors. The ideas were plentiful: creating bracelets, keychains, or watercolors. At the coliving space, there are plenty of materials we can freely use. That night, we chose watercolors, but we already know we’ll try the others too!
After Fabienne explained the basic watercolors’ techniques, everyone just had fun. Some were drawing ocean elements (funny since we’re surrounded by mountains!), others were inspired by the field flowers blooming around here in this season (those wildflowers look like they’re straight out of a fairytale!), and the most ambitious went for a full mountain landscape (spoiler: it turned out simply wonderful!).
How cool it is to share artistic moments, chats, and even silent, focused moments. I feel like this is (almost) like a meditation. Your brain is off, your creativity is on, and relaxation is guaranteed.
Jam sessions and DJ nights
[Uff, as I started to write this article, I had a few activities in mind that I wanted to talk about. But the more I write, the more activities come to mind… I’m realizing how much I’ve done and experienced in the “only” two months I’ve spent here: it’s insane! And now I’m only thinking about the chill activities in the house, which is only a lil part of the full Alpiness expecience!]
Anyway, I won’t explain much here; I’ll just say we had a few jam sessions thanks to Louis and Joel, who play the guitar amazingly, and to Fleur, who has a breathtakingly powerful voice. Later, we had a crazy night with DJ Nico, who, by the way, is also the guy who helped to build the kitchen – how can one person have so many cool talents?! 😂
Last but not least: pet therapy
I could go on listing adorable activities forever, but I feel I’ve talked way too much already. So, I’ll conclude with the most adorable activity ever… pet therapy!
Here in the house, there is the actual boss: the doggy, Winchy. He is a cheese lover, a sweetie, but also a bit of a weirdo (I say that in the sweetest way – I love him to the moon!❤️ ). He can be a bit quirky because he’s a rescue with quite a few traumas.
Winchy appreciates staying in his own bubble, and we respect that. But there are moments when he also seeks affection. He comes to ask for it in his own (special and unique) ways, and that’s when the full-on pet therapy mood starts. Ear rubs and belly cuddles are 100% therapeutic, I promise!
The bottom line: savoring simple moments
It’s time to wrap up this article, and I think it’s sweet to do so with a description of what I’m experiencing right now. This is just to give you an idea of the vibe in the house and what the everyday activities are…
Some folks are packing their stuff and leaving for a quick (but intense) climbing adventure. Others are coming and going from the vegetable garden with rhubarb (spoiler: we have enough for the whole village; we pretend we grew it, but it was spontaneous 😂). Another couple just returned from Rock View, a hike right in front of the house – quite steep, though, taking about 3-4 hours – with an amazing view (they say; I’ve yet to go). And there are others passing by with their laptops, heading to the kitchen for snacks between calls, maybe even grumbling about the last email they received…
Honestly, these simple daily moments here in the coliving space are so, so fulfilling. Here it is, a simple afternoon. Did you catch how precious all of this is between the lines?
