This past weekend we went to Koh Samet, which is a beautiful island somewhat close to Bangkok. It usually takes about 4 hours to get there by bus, but we paid a little more money this time and rented a van to take us directly to the pier, at which point we took a speedboat over to the island. It's a great little island because it's not overly developed, and it feels like you're down south because the water is so blue and the beach is so nice. The first day we just relaxed and spent time on the beach, which was really great because we hadn't been out of smelly Bangkok for awhile. The second day, we did something that we had been talking about for awhile...we got tattoos! We had been considering it for awhile, but we never really knew where to go or when a good time would be because you're not supposed to get them wet until they heal, and we spend most of our weekends on the beach! Since we're going to Chiang Mai (not a beach) next weekend, we figured that it would be a good time. Also, Krista (who had three, now four, tattoos) had talked to this tattoo artist on Koh Samet a number of times because he really liked the tattoo on her back. He was really nice and had shown us some of his designs before. We were a little nervouse because we didn't know how clean it would be, but we went to his shop and everything was very clean, and he took the needles out of the packages for us to show that they were sterile. I got a gecko on the side of my foot because geckos are a good luck symbol in Thailand and I also got my name written in Thai (and yes, it definitely is my name...I asked at least four people to verify before I got it done) between the tail and the back leg of the gecko. One other girl that I went with also got a gecko with her name (same idea, but different design) and the other two girls got toe rings with their names in Thai. It actually didn't hurt as much as I thought that it would...but it still did hurt! I went with three other girls who all had tattoos already, so I decided to go first because I knew that I would probably back out if I didn't. It also didn't take as long as I thought, only about twenty minutes. It doesn't really hurt at all right now, unless I wear flip flops which rub right against it. My kids saw it today and were completley amazed. It was quite funny actually, because I hadn't said anything to them, and I was just walking around during circle time when one of my kids pointed at my foot and yelled, "Miss Jill, foot!" They all looked at my foot and just stared, so I walked around and showed it to each of them. They all tried to touch it, and my Thai teachers kept on yelling at them to back up, "no touch, no touch!" I told my Thai teachers how much tattoos cost in Canada, and then how much mine cost (800 baht, about $24) and they were amazed at the price difference. I don't think that anyone, myself included, really thought that I was going to go through with it, but I really like it and I'm really glad that I did!