All Things Holland

My parents went on a trip to California recently. They talked to people about my interest in Dutch things and the man they were talking to mentioned that I should look up Holambra, Brazil. So I did. This is an excerpt from a website I found ( http://www.v-brazil.com/tourism/foreigner/holambra.html ). Add this to the list of places that speak Dutch outside of the Netherlands and places I would like to visit. The town is on the South-East side of Brazil near Sao Paulo. Holland, in Portuguese, is Holanda. A city built jointly by Holland and Brazil should, then, be called Holan + Bra = Holanbra. However, Portuguese orthography requires that, before a "b", an "m" must be used. Hence, Holambra, a piece of Holland in Brazil. Or Hol land- Am erica- Bra zil. In 1948, after World War II, Holland was not so rich as today; many families, particularly from the countryside, didn't have bright perspectives in their country, and wanted to emigrate. Brazil was the option for som...

Yesterday I was made aware that I need to be careful putting pictures up here due to copyrights and all that stuff. Thankfully, blogger has some websites that it claims are safe so here it goes. The Dutch have trucked out some serious artists, most during the 19th century. I'm not much of an art connoisseur, so thank you internet. Vincent van Gogh - Born in 1853 in southern Netherlands. He was a Post-Impressionist painter who battled mental illness his whole life. Famously cutting of his ear and mailing it. The story goes that he cut off a portion of his left ear lobe and put it in an envelope which he gave to a brothel wench and told her to "Guard this object carefully." To the left is his most famous painting entitled Starry Night. He also painted many self-portaits. Again, I'm no expert, but he seems to have a very distinct style. An expert described it as blots of colorful paints when placed next to each other trick the eye into seeing movement. He painted th...

Today I thought I would start an ongoing portion where I tell you about semi-famous to famous people who are Dutch. Some you wouldn't have guessed and others you already know. First off are Movies..... ( Her picture here ) I could only find one big name. Famke Janssen - Born in Holland. Best known for her roles as Xenia Onatopp in Goldeneye and Jean Grey in X-Men. She recently appeared as Liam Neeson's wife in Taken. Interestingly, her first name means little girl in West Frisian and she speaks (besides Dutch) English and French. All the rest of the Dutch actors and actresses are not main stream enough to be recognizable.

( Map ) Both. Kinda. The country is known as the Netherlands (Nederland in Dutch). Holland is the name of the name of two of the twelve provinces that make up the Netherlands. North Holland (Noord Holland) is the home to Amsterdam while South Holland (Zuid Holland) is home to The Hague (Den Haag). The Hague is the "political" capital of the Netherlands while Amsterdam is the "real" capital. You have probably heard on the news about The Hague. It is in a way the political capital wester Europe. The European Union Courts are located there. I guess in a way the next powerful political establishment outside the UN. So the Dutch are Nederlanders but translated into english it is just Dutch. The reason that Holland is used interchangeably as the name of the country is that that is the most influential province of the country. We really don't have an example here in America. It would be like if the United States would be called Texas or something. I'm sure Texans w...

I've found some more words in the English language that have Dutch origins. How about I call them Loan Words. I tried to put either the meaning or more information in parenthesis. booze - busen boss - baas (master) bundle - bundel cruise - kruisen (to cross) dock - docke duffel - cloth named after Duffel, a Belgian town freight - vrecht (load) landscape - landskip (based on landscap which means region) mannequin - manneken (little man) pickle - pekel pump - pumpe (pipe) sketch - schets skipper - schipper (shipper) slurp - slorpen (to sip) smuggle - smokkelen snoop - snoepen (to eat furtively) splinter - splinter/splinte (splint) split - splitten (to cleave) spook - spook (ghost) tub - tubbe waffle - wafel (waefel) wagon - wagen (wain, car)

So posting something every weekday is a little harder than I thought. I think I'm just going to shoot for at least 2 a week. Sorry folks. Today I thought it would be neat to read about some companies that were founded in the Netherlands. Some you already know and others that may make you say, "really?" I picked just the ones that we here in America would recognize. First off the beer companies. Just 2 BIG ones. Amstel Brewery - 1870 in Amsterdam. Bought by the next company in 1968. Heineken International - 1864 in Amsterdam. As of 2007 they own 119 breweries in 65 countries. They claim their recipe hasn't changed in 150 years and Heineken is the worlds 3rd largest brewer. Now others. Endemol - 1994 merger of television companies. They have produced shows like Fear Factor and Wipeout based in the Netherlands. ING Group - Financial institution full name is Internationale Nederlanden Groep (International Netherlands Group). You remember the commercials. ING with the ora...

Here it is, a little bit belated, of why I went to NY this last weekend. Sorry it took so long. Where I stayed didn't have internet access and besides, I only have one regular reader so I figured that you one person could wait a bit until I got back. New York City wasn't always called New York. The area, as everyone knows, was originally explored by Henry Hudson in 1609 but actually settled in 1613 with Ford Amsterdam being erected in the area now known as Manhattan in 1625 by the Dutch. The British conquered the area in 1664 from the Dutch. The Dutch later retook the island renaming it New Orange only to trade it in a treaty for Suriname in 1674. Thus giving up their foothold in the North America. At this time in history the Dutch were fading as a world power and the British were rising. The new world area including the 13 colonies were not very profitable yet while Suriname area in South America was. Today, located about and hour northeast of the City is a small hamlet known ...