Chiang Mai Report

I have finally secured employment. I have two temporary teaching jobs with language schools in Chiang Mai. Both end in a few weeks, but they are a foot in the door. One program director I talked to said Chiang Mai was the most difficult city in South-East Asia to find teaching work in. So that may have not been a great choice by me, but I will keep plugging away. In the mean time I am exploring cheaper and cheaper food options. My new favorite is a place called Khao Soy Feuan Fah, a Thai-Indian place located in Chiang Mai's miniscule Muslim neighborhood. Literally this street is like four buildings long. But they serve khao mok phae (goat biryani) along with the usual combinations of rice, chicken, and pungent sauce. It's hidden right around the corner from the city's mammoth night bazaar, but it closes right before the bazaar opens. A sign of legitimacy in my eyes, like maybe it doesn't want to act in concert with all the pirated dvd vendors and Thai boxing touts, all catering to the tourist crowd.

In other news, today I was running by the Chiang Mai University resevoir when I saw a guy in a tree with a rifle. My stomach jumped, like maybe this was some kind of spin-off from the Muslim unrest in the south where they're burning schools and killing teachers. A few days ago I saw a kid pull a pistol out of his shorts that I was 95% sure was a toy but I ran away anyway. So this guy's perfectly still, crouched about 15 feet off the ground in the branches of the tree. He sights his rifle, points it at the water and shoots. I see a writhing in the water and I realize he's gunning down fish. Like the proverbial fish in the barrel, except this doesn't look easy. There's also some kind of attachment to his gun that looks like a tin can that fires after the fish and I had this idea that he was catching live fish in tin cans or something. I'm curious so I strike up a little conversation. Here's how it goes:

Me: Sa waa dii kap.
Gunman: Kap.
Me: Are you shooting *I cock my finger and thumb* fish?
Gunman: Hello.

And then I wrack my brain for anything in Thai that could communicate my interest, confusion, or desire to shoot the gun myself.

Me: Sanouk dii (good fun).

So that's about where my language is right now. I can order goat biryani in a restaurant and I can tell fish shooters to have fun. Tomorrow's goals: the word "for" and a successful order of khao ka muu.