From +30 to -30: “The extremes are just amazing”
The dark winters and the light summers. People living in the north might take it for granted, but for Emilia Nordström from Namibia, moving to Luleå was something very special.
– I come from a country where the sun is strong, but never so strong that it would shine at night. If you love nature, this place will enchant you.
Having lived and studied in a number of countries in Europe, Emilia Nordström ended up in Luleå to do her PhD at Luleå University of Technology. She will never forget her first encounter with the city. It was December 2011, and it was dark.
– Before I came to Luleå, I didn’t know much about the city. I was picked up from the airport and wondered ‘do people work at night here?’ It was 15:35, and that was an unexpected shock, she says.
Having lived and studied in a number of countries in Europe, Emilia Nordström ended up in Luleå to do her PhD at Luleå University of Technology. She will never forget her first encounter with the city. It was December 2011, and it was dark.
– Before I came to Luleå, I didn’t know much about the city. I was picked up from the airport and wondered ‘do people work at night here?’ It was 15:35, and that was an unexpected shock, she says.
The first thing she had to do was get used to the new climate. At first she overslept because of the winter darkness, and she invested in a much warmer winter jacket than she’d ever owned before.
Emilia Nordström is an engineering graduate specialising in the mining industry, who came to Luleå after being in contact with a professor at the university. You can tell she’s an engineer when she talks about how she dealt with the transition from +30 to -30.
– I poured out some water, then I went outside and threw it from the balcony. The ice crystals that formed were the most spectacular thing I’d seen in my entire life, she says.
Some of her new friends took her out to the ice road in Luleå, and explained that you can walk on the water.
– I’d never experienced that before, how would I know it was safe? It was incredible to me. I walked like a duck. I needed to read up and understand the science behind it, she explains.
The ice has a special importance for Emilia. She fell in love with one of her friends at university, and one year later they got engaged – on the ice.
– That’s my best memory from Luleå. I can now look out at the ice or the water, and think that that’s where I got engaged.
More than ten years have passed since Emilia Nordström moved to Luleå. She has married, had two children and designed the house in Bensbyn near Luleå herself. They moved into the house in December 2017.
– We bought the land and designed the house ourselves. Living there is just amazing. It might not be perfect, but we like it so much, says Emilia, adding:
– Luleå is ideal for families. One of my children is really active, and it’s easy to get her moving. Just outside our house we have a forest on one side and a lake on the other.
Emilia and her husband are nature-lovers, and they enjoy cross-country skiing and riding fat bikes on the ice. They go skiing in the mountains and snowmobiling or boating in the archipelago with the parents-in-law.
– The archipelago is big and amazing. Being able to ride a snowmobile in the winter, and take a boat in the same place in the summer, that’s so different. It such a luxury, having everything so close at hand!
Text och foto: Maria Ekman