Hi everyone!
My name is Joel Vasquez and I am in the final stretch of my MSI program.
I am currently lucky enough to be a branch manager in Nassau County despite having an incomplete degree.
I live in Yulee, Florida at the moment but I spent most of my life in New York City, specifically, the Bronx. I worked in a College Library as an assistant for roughly 9 years while I was slowly but surely finishing my undergraduate degree. I ended up living in Japan for a year and moving back on and off for a couple of years at a time but for now I am settled in the land of beaches and no snow…
As far as degrees go, I studied East Asian Studies and received a Minor degree in Japanese. I taught English for a bit and eventually moved back due to some family emergencies but I am trying to make the best of it!
Some fun facts about my traveling life:
I have climbed Mt. Fuji and my clearest memory of it was the smell! (Plumbing on mountains is interesting…)
I have lived in Kobe, Kanagawa and Tokyo and somehow managed to miss out on traveling to Hokkaido (I love snow and I am denied this luxury by Florida). I studied Cultural Informatics in Kobe University!
https://www.kobe-u.ac.jp/en/index.html
I have been getting into quite a few creative projects at work so I am definitely looking forward to learning some new tricks in this course. I am looking forward to bringing some of what I learn to my job. I can already see this is going to be a fun time since I use WordPress for the website at my job as well!
Myself somewhere on Fuji (ignore my star friends haha):
I look forward to working with you all! I ay be finishing my degree but the climb continues!
Hi Joel! You are quite the world traveler. I visited Tokyo many years ago for a 3-week stay. I truly loved my time there. I stayed with a family which gave me the opportunity to be immersed in their culture a little more than a hotel would have given. I even had to visit the neighborhood bath house to bathe each day. A few months later, my family had a Japanese foreign exchange student live with us for a year. I remember taking her to visit New York City. It was the first time for both of us in the city. I was really shocked at how dirty NYC was compared to Tokyo. I guess Tokyo spoiled me on big-city-living. I am jealous that you were able to climb Mt. Fuji. The day I went to see it, the fog was so thick I couldn’t see anything. I hope to someday return. Thank you for sharing your travels.
Hi Joel,
Nice to meet you! I am amazed by your travel experience and Yes I agree Florida is not the best place for people from the northeast. But for adventurous people like you have a lot of options like Kayaking, Scuba diving which you might be interested in exploring.
It is wonderful that you use WordPress at work so you can use that knowledge wisely for this class.
You have a very versatile learning experience and not everyone could do that. I really wish you earn more degrees like how you climb mountains but for now Good luck in completing your MSI program!