Juniata College India Marine Science

This one was a quick train ride, only six hours to Goa from Mangalore. The National Institute of Oceanography was next on our list of places to go. The best thing about NIO is that it is located in Goa. Goa is famous and infamous for its beaches, booze, and babes. I, of course, was excited for all three.

Our first full day, Sunday was off so our group went exploring. We started off at a popular spot in the morning. I was hesitant to go at first when our lovely Indian guide Tanvi, called it “The Jetty.” She reassured us that it was nothing like the nightmares we had seen in Mangalore. This was a family place where you could go to sit and relax and enjoy a nice dinner. So we went and it sort of reminded me of the boardwalk at the shore. There was a cement bridge that led to a small rocky island where you could climb stairs to the top and get a great view of the bay. Along the bridge were little stands of people selling this and that. It really was nice and so were the people there. They were so excited about white people, we all had our picture taken with about five or six different Indian families.

Then we took a bus to the town of Panaji which was near by. I checked out the busy streets first then made my way to alleyways. Each nook and cranies with a different adventure waiting to be explored.

I noticed very easily that Goa is quite different than some of the other Indian places we have visited. Goa is really touristy, a lot cleaner, and definitely has more white faces, so that means less stares from the locals when they see one.

We met at FoodLand for lunch. I had a chicken cheeseburger and fries; it tasted like a million bucks. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the Indian cuisine, when I get back to the states I WILL NEVER EAT RICE AGAIN! So when I ate this burger, it really hit the spot and I instantly fell in love with Goa. Little did I know, it would get much better.

We came back and rested up, walking around town takes a lot out of ya. Later on, I went back to the Jetty to watch the sunset. I went armed with a few remaining sips of rum that I mixed with a Coke and watched that sun set. It was really relaxing watching the soft orange glow of the sky turn an unexpected purple and listening to the steady howl sound the bottle of Coke made from the unceasing wind. It was a nice way to unwind after two very busy weeks at the Fisheries College.

It got really dark fast and the power and street lights seemed to always be going out, so I made my way back to the NIO guest house even faster. The guesthouse was nice, there was A/C in all the rooms and the food wasn’t too bad. Everyone ate up and then as a group we went to a nearby bar that was a hop, skip, and jump away.

Shots of Old Monk rum were only 15 Rs so I ordered 3 and a Coke. We sat around drinking at our table talking about the trip so far, about all the good times we had at Juniata, this, that, and the other thing.

At the end of the night I was pretty torn. I couldn’t figure out why 3 had got me to the drunken state I was in, I’m a light weight but normally 3 shots doesn’t floor me. Then someone showed me the bar menu and 15Rs was for a double shot. “Well that explains it, but wait…” I thought for a second and did some math in my head. “Six shots for 45 Rs is like 1 dollar in the states!” Six shots for a dollar! Goa I love you.

Monday morning we started classes at NIO. What a place, let me tell you. I think NIO has the machine and manpower to tell you where every grain of sand is laying or floating around on the face of the earth. They’ve got their “sand” together. A usual day at NIO started with a lecture in the morning, then some library time, lunch, and then another lecture in the afternoon. I wish we had more than a week to spend here. The labs and equipment were cool, kind of reminded me of Von Liebig at JC. I wish they would have let us play with their toys, but we were only allowed to watch.

One night, in fact it was Valentine’s Day, because when I got back I remembered to call my grandmother and wish her a happy birthday, I went to a casino. Chances it was called. It was an all right place, I’ve never been in a casino in the states but it seemed like a typical casino atmosphere: slots, card tables, hell you could even bet on a computerize version of which chicken would beat up the other chicken. I went to the bar and a few gin in tonics later I made my way to the outside where I had heard music playing. Right along the beach, three parties were going on. I had a security guard escort me into the Valentine’s party, but didn’t feel like partying that much when I found out it was 900 Rs to get in. After I declined, the guard pointed down a path which he told me to follow, make a right around the shrubs, exit is straight ahead. I followed all the directions except for “exit is straight ahead.” I wasn’t ready to go home yet so instead I made a left into the hotel bar, and walked straight through to the other side where I found, just in time, a woman pop out of a fake wooden cake spraying Champaign on some lucky birthday dude. It was one hell of a 50th birthday party: beach load of people, live jazz band, belly dancers, and fireworks. I was just watching and had a great time being there. Later on I walked down the beach to another party, this time it was a wedding. Again live band, fireworks, and good times. I wasn’t brazen enough to order a drink from their open bar. It might look obvious that I wasn’t invited with the guests dressed in suits and ties and extravagant dresses. My Strokes t-shirt, dirty jeans, and a pair of worn to the nub All-Stars that would have made Chuck Taylor proud, didn’t really fit the dress code for the evening. So I called it a night.

On the last day with NIO, we did a beach profile at a popular beach in Goa. NIO personnel always measure the erosion and accumulation of sediments at this beach. During the monsoon the sediments move. There is a huge cargo ship that had wrecked and is only now being in the process of being move. It is very close to the shore and people at NIO believe that the currents reflected by the ship are causing a different displacement of these sediments, or something like that, it was hard to pay attention to what the surveyor was talking about with all the Euro-babes walking around.

To be continued…

Zak Kupchinsky