NAME: Luka de Laat
AGE: Almost 21 but ”behaves like a twelve year old”
HOMETOWN: Utrecht, Netherlands
STUDIES: Third semester Economy and Society
Lundagård meets one of all of Lund’s students every day until Christmas eve. On day number five we have Luka de Laat, 21 years old (but ”behaves like a twelve year old”). Luka is from Utrecht in the Netherlands and is on her third semester of the Economy and Society program.
Which is the best Christmas gift you ever received?
In the Netherlands, you don’t really celebrate Christmas with presents. But this was my grandma’s first Christmas gift — and, also, my last gift from her. She gave all her grandchildren — which happen to be girls — beautiful dolls. It means a lot to me; my mum said my grandma and I were soulmates.
What’s your least favorite thing about Christmas?
Every year, we visit my family. They live on a farm, and we have to have dinner in their unheated dining room. I always freeze to death. Last time, I had to borrow thermal underwear from my aunt to survive dinner.
But I do love my family.
What’s a dish you think should be a part of a traditional Christmas dinner even though it isn’t and why?
For me, a typical Christmas dinner dish is a hare. My uncle is a hunter and he shoots hares. With this, we’d have brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes. All of this is disgusting. And I haven’t celebrated Christmas with my uncle since having become vegetarian and then vegan, so I’m curious to see what the next time will look like.
With my close family, my sisters and my parents, we don’t really have a ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner. My closest family isn’t too big on Christmas traditions—we celebrate it, but not in a too rigid kind of way. Last Christmas, my dad cooked a Sri Lankan curry for all of us, and the year before that, my mum made tapas for all of us.
What’s your favorite song to sing in the shower?
Anything by Ed Sheeran.
Do you believe in ghosts?
I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’m afraid of them.
If your life was a movie, what would be the soundtrack?
My Name is Luka by Suzanne Vega.
