Kim-Friday Feature!

Kim Anouk Wölper

Today’s Friday feature is the one and only Kim Wölper!! Kim is quite the adventurer. Originally from Germany, she has been living in New Zealand for most of her 20’s. I first got to know Kim as a caring and thoughtful environmentalist. Surprise, she is also in the LUMES program. Over the past semester we went on many hikes and fikas together. Among my favorites was our trip to see the seals and a recent fika in Malmö. Thanks for sharing those special moments with me :)

Name: Kim Anouk Wölper

I don't have any nicknames (yet) :)

Birthdate: 02.16.1995

A Q & A with Kim:

Why did you come to Sweden?

I primarily came to Sweden for the LUMES programme but I intend to stay and live here if all goes to plan :) As a kid, my family and I used to sail a lot around the Danish and Swedish coast and I fell in love with the little villages and rugged skerries further North. Sweden is renowned for enabling a healthy work-life balance and it's close to my family in Hamburg, Germany, so this seemed like a great place for my partner Matt and I to move to.

What's your favorite food?

This is a hard one, I love food and do have a sweet tooth. Chocolate is my favourite treat and my partner cooks a mean mushroom stroganoff. Yum.

Favorite color:

Teal, and any shade between blue and green! It reminds me of the ocean and makes me feel calm.

Sunrises or sunsets?

Watching sunsets while having a beach barbecue with friends. I don't generally get up early enough to watch sunrises I'm afraid.

Crossing the Maruia River while out on a hike with my partner Matt to a cabin with the charming name Cannibal Gorge Hut, South Island, Aotearoa. It rained most of the day but spirits were high!

Where are you from?

I am from a village called Waldenau which is part of the town Pinneberg just west of Hamburg, Germany. Kinda where the urban area ends and rural Northern Germany begins. However, I spent the last 7.5 years traveling, studying and working in Aotearoa New Zealand! I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

The first snowfall in Lund called for us building a (miniature) snowman. I am looking rather proud in this picture, but I swear my fingers were about to fall off from the cold.

What do you like to do in Lund?

Fika with my lovely new friends of course! I am also learning Swedish and practising every day, so I will hopefully be fluent by the time our Master's finishes.

Any life goals?

Workwise, I would love to get back into environmental and spatial planning after LUMES and work on sustainability transitions with regard to land use, maybe even become the policy lead at a local council one day. If I can live close to the coast and near great places to hike that would be primo! Ideally in a nice apartment with my partner Matt and our fluffball Bobby.

Summer holiday on Nordstrand, a peninsula in the North Sea, with my best friend Cara.

Sing or dance?

I would rather sing along to every song but those around me would (vehemently) object to that.

Thanks for reading and stay warm on this wet, icy, cold Swedish Friday :)