Nathalie Van Raemdonck

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  • how tipping in the US makes me feel a little like a ruthless God

    When I go to a restaurant (on the rare occasions that I do) I get very upset about the tipping system. Every. Time. Even after 2 months of being in the United States. In the beginning it mostly upset me because I felt fooled, since the price I originally thought I was going to pay…

  • UN Internships: a splash of cynicism with a dollop of disillusion

    (This piece appeared previously in Student magazine De Moeial in Dutch) As a former Political Science student at the VUB, I had the opportunity to intern at the United Nations headquarters in New York between January-July 2014. It would be the pinnacle of the internship experience and the wet dream of many political scientists with…

  • Cyberinterventie in Syrië, een potentieel gevaarlijk precedent

    (voorheen verschenen in Mo*) Sinds enkele dagen woedt er een grotendeels geheime discussie in de Amerikaanse veiligheidsraad om Amerika’s cyberwapens in te zetten in de burgeroorlog in Syrië. Er gaan in de VS al langer stemmen op voor een humanitaire interventie in Syrië, en toen er chemische wapens gebruikt werden tegen de bevolking, stond de…

  • the improbability of cheap healthy food in America

    Going grocery shopping in the US has given me a new perspective on the perverse effects of a TRUE free market system that I never fully experienced in Europe. I have been absolutely shocked by the quality of food. Here the logic applies of “you get what you pay, if you pay less, you get…

  • Brazil: Belo Horizonte

    Belo Horizonte was a special part of my trip to Brazil, and I stayed about a month in total with my friend Luiza’s family after travelling through Peru and Bolivia. So it was Luiza who planted the seed of going to Brazil for me. There were other influences as well, but after living with Luiza…

  • Bolivia: Salt Flats

    Salt Flats I left for Uyuni alone on Saturday evening, since I absolutely still had to do the salt flats and time was starting to run out. The busride to this middle of nowhere was absolutely dreadful. I was quite ill, feverish and had some stomach problems, the bus broke down at 3am (apparently not…

  • Bolivia: Death road

    After hearing so many backpackers rave about it in La Paz, me and my travel companions decided to cycle the Death Road. The death road used to be the “Most Dangerous Road In The World”. Several hundreds of people die every year falling into the ravine from the narrow road that is really not made…