– My name is Tomke D’Souza, I am an international student at LTU from the south of Germany. I’m currently studying for my double degree in international management.
She changed her mind on going to Asia when she found out about Luleå.
– It was a friend of mine who originally found Luleå when we were looking for places to go. I was originally set on going somewhere in Asia. My friend then started showing me pictures and I stared doing some research and then realized that I did not want to go to Asia anymore but here instead.
After being here for almost nine months, she loves it and has found a big social sphere of other international students from all over the world.
– There is this group called ESN who organizes trips and activities for all exchange students. I’ve found quite a lot of friends through that, so now we do our own “events” in the evening or during the day. We have been going out to the ice-road quite a bit and that’s been nice. One of my favorite places in town is actually the little island at the end, Gråsjälören, I love going there for barbequing or waffles! In general, the cold environment is very interesting, it is really nothing like we have in Germany.
The city puls and the closeness to nature is something that Tomke really enjoys and will miss when going back to Germany. She was also asked if Luleå could be a town shed consider moving to when finished with her studies.
– One other thing that I have found very fun is the accessibility to secondhand stores here, it is something that I missed when I was back home in Germany. Because of the easy access to the outdoors and calm environment it is a possibility in the future yes, but I need to find a good job and maybe when have a family, I feel like this is a very family-friendly town.
