After three trips to the same hotel in downtown Beijing I finally noticed that my hotel was next to the Hard Rock. Now, it is not for not looking. I am usually gazing out of the car window in an attempt to recognize any recognizable landmark that I might be nearing my hotel, the Hard Rock being a good example. But the smog is usually so thick that I can’t even see the doormen much less the door. It gives me that Jack The Ripper London feel as I walk around never knowing who will pop out around the next corner. After horrible hotel food I am glad to see I have at least one other option and I will now give to eat there at least once just to say I tried it.

Gotta get this post up quick to scoop Rebecca. Frankie is home! After 6 months, 21 days, and more paper work than you can shake a stick at (pun intended) Frankie has once again rejoined our family. He and Gioia get along fine. They kind of ignore each other. Gioia is a lil “over it” and Frankie thinks G is a play toy when you swing her around too much. I can already see that the water bowl is going to be a problem.

For those of you keeping score at home, the current travel count is:

Frankie(5) – Chicago, Beijing, Shanghai, Nashville, Atlanta
Gioia(5) – China, Japan, Hawaii, Taiwan, Hong Kong, (coming soon: Singapore and Turkey)

So the question you gotta ask yourself is, has my dog and less than 1 year old daughter travelled more than you?
We can help you fix that ;) Come see us.

Many of you have asked questions around:
What is the baby’s name?
How do you say it?
What about her Chinese name?
Where did ‘X’ come from?

But before we get to that…

I am reading a book called “Beyond Coincidence.” It is a great book from B that talks about all the crazy coincidences in life. Things like Kennedy and Lincoln parallels, people winning the lottery twice on the same day, a child releasing a balloon and it landing in the yard of another child with the same age and same name, the mummy’s curse, etc…

Now I tend to see this kind of stuff all the time in my life and it is crazy. One of my friends in Beijing diagnosed me as obsessive compulsive and she says that is why I see this kind of thing, but when I start explaining it to you, you can’t deny it. Take this example: I am reading this book on the plane. AFTER 6 hours of waiting because we were redirected because of snow. I had read another book and finished it and was now picking this one back up. Now on this CHINESE flight into the heart of China with everyone reading Chinese newspapers and books, I happen to sit next to the one guy who after hours on the plane decides to read the “Time” magazine in front of him. Actually, I don’t think he is reading it, but rather thumbing through the pictures. One of them drew my attention as well. It was an article on Bobby Fischer, the chess champion. About how he was a genius and such. I thought, “Hmmm, Yeah, I remember that movie ‘Searching for Bobby Fischer’.” Oh well, back to my book…

I turned the page and there in the middle of page 158 is and example of coincidence called “Icelandic Chess”. It is a story about a reporter writing about Bobby Fischer’s chess championship. Come on. Tell me something weird is not going on!

Now what does all that have to do with Baby G? Well, we received the announcement that we could adopt her and her pictures for the first time on Jan 2nd. This is our legal wedding anniversary. On Jan 31st we will officially adopt her. This is our religious wedding anniversary. (it gets better)

Her English name is/will be Gioia Beatrix Beukenkamp.

Gioia is Italian for joy. It comes from one of our friends in Chicago. We went to dinner and I swear I had to ask her 15 times what her name was until I got it (seriously, buy a consonant). After that it just kind of stuck with us. This is also where B’s blog comes from: missgioia.com

Beatrix has double significance:
1. It is the name of one of our favorite authors Beatrix Potter of Peter Rabbit fame. We also saw the movie which starred Renée Zellweger. Renee also was in Bridget Jones Diary which is one of the main reasons we met, but that is another story.
2. Beatrix is also the Queen of Holland and being of Dutch ancestry and having a Dutch last name, we thought it only fitting.

Now, her Chinese name will be Bei Le Xin. We are not doing the typical American thing of giving her a Chinese middle name as described on her orphanages website. In China/Taiwan this does not make any sense as you need to translate your name, not have half and half. My Chinese name is Bei Kang Hong. I actually like it a lot and it works. It is the same Bei that is in David Beckham’s Chinese name, it is an easy character to write ( 贝), and it is not common like Beuk. The only bad thing is that in Taiwan it is the same name (Kang Hong) as some 60 year old singer that I don’t think sings very well. Oh well, I like it. (click here to hear it) So, since last names are first in Asia, my Bei is Gioia’s Bei and it means precious which I am sure she will be.

A Chinese name is used for tons of things from mail to forms to ordering pizza to allowing people to be able to simply pronounce your name. Take for example the dry cleaners has to enter a Chinese name for you in their computer. B tends not use her Chinese name, but that is because she has less direct interaction with people on the street than I do and Coke translates well into Chinese and it makes us smile when we say it (ke ko ke le).

(come on, come on… where is the coincidence?)
Her Chinese name comes from the orphanage and we have decide to keep it. Mostly because Le Xin means happy or joyous heart. A search for the word “joy” shows that her name is the same as what is used in ‘le qu’ or joy. So, her English name and Chinese name coincidentally have the same meaning. I know you can find meaning in anything if you search hard enough, but come on…we could have named her Rachel.

Baby G’s orphanage: http://www.fulingkids.org/
Simple online translation: http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html

Hello all and welcome back!

What is up with all the sites sounding the same? First it was Goo{insert text here}. Then it just became “OO“. Now it seems, as it falls out of fashion, it has become more like “ewww“. I’m talking about all the Google parody sites that sprung up.
Such as:

• frOOgle
• gOOsynch
• OOgle
• etc…

Now we are hit with the attack of the Beijing accent; Flickr, Blogg(e)r, Mappr, Twitter, r, r, r, etc…
Makes me want to go out an register Beukr. (In fact, I think I used to have a friend in high school call me that). It is interesting how the English language lends itself to parodies like that. One might say it is EZ. How come some consonants and vowels tend to work better than others? Does there have to be one smash success for others to follow or can you start your own trend? Maybe I could start: “Beuk-iful” or “The Beuk of Earl” or “Beuk and White” (sorry it is late and I am jet lagged) I was MUCH more creative THIS DAY.

I just found the latest in “r”eally new sites: Tumblr.com
Instead of my normal post post-travel I have placed it on Tumblr to try it out. I would love to have one site that could consolidate all my others sites, but so far Blogger still rules for me. The jury is still out, but there maybe changes in the future for Beuk.tv. Is Tumblr it? Check it out yourself and let me know what you think.
Lat’r!