Another Story

Just to clear things up, or perhaps for some, make them more complicated, I have a few things to say about this small and crowded bit of former swampland that I live on. I say swampland because the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium are collectively known as the low-countries, lands that have been reclaimed from the sea by draining off all the agua. That is of course the reason there are so many canals throughout this country. Aha, I can see the lightbulb is starting to glimmer, isn't it twinkeltits? Hamster gaining a little ground in his Sysiphean enterprise of moving that little wheel? Hmm.... here's where it gets complicated. So complicated in fact, that when I've tried to give small geography lessons to mistaken friends and relatives their eyes usually glaze over. Go figure. Incidentally I quit doing it when: a) I got tired of explaining that the country is not called Amsterdam, and I don't live in that city anyway, and: b) I felt like the glazed look may have been a reaction to my possibly pretentious and pedantic accounts.
Where was I? Oh yes, the Netherlands..... it's the name of the country. The people and the language are to English speakers: Dutch. In their own language it's Nederlanders and Nederlands respectively. Holland is actually a specific region. There is a north and south Holland, and Amsterdam is in the North, the Hague in the south. So, I am living in the Hague or "Den Haag" which is the simplified version of "s'Gravenhage" which is not to be confused with the suburban town near here called Scheveningen. For extra credit, this last town is so difficult for non-Dutch speakers to pronounce that it was actually a code-word during WWII. So to recap: Amsterdam does not equal Holland which does not equal The Netherlands. Capice?