Emiliia is used to the cold

It is five degrees, but it feels colder because of the damp wind. In Mandeville the tutorials have just finished and the corridors are filling up with thick coats, umbrellas and the students trying to hide beneath them. Emiliia (25) has just come out of a class on the European Union. She looks relaxed, cold never bothered her anyway.

She is wearing a dark blue quilted coat with a wide, stately hood and the comfort of a sleeping bag. “The weather today feels normal to me”, she says. Emiliia grew up in Murmansk, a city in the north of Russia. “The winter there doesn’t feel so cold, because the warm sea current means the air isn’t so crispy.”

Emiliia’s all-encompassing coat is unique. Inside are two straps that let her carry it on her back like a rucksack. A great invention that often comes in handy: “You know what it’s like when you’re at the airport, your hands are full and you’re also getting too warm.”

Emiliia has lived in many cities. Two weeks ago she arrived in Rotterdam for a short exchange as part of her master’s in Public Administration at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. She is doing most of that degree remotely from Hamburg. That is where she works and lives with her husband, with whom she has been in a relationship since secondary school.

For her short stay in Rotterdam she brought one suitcase with five pairs of trousers and ten jumpers. Everything goes together, so getting dressed is very easy. “When you look simple, you look clean.” In the morning she does not need to spend long deciding on a ‘minimalist, professional’ outfit. Today that is baggy jeans and a woolly grey-brown jumper.

In the coming years Emiliia wants to keep discovering new countries, although it may not be in a public administration role, but rather working for an international company in logistics or marketing. “I find it inspiring to get to know people and their cultures.” Everywhere she goes, she also looks at the clothes people wear. Her favourite place is clear: “I lived in Paris for six months…”