CP 9 Hussein and Sam (John Vaught)

I had the pleasure of meeting up with a new student at CIES named Hussein  I got his information from the sheet Ramin had posted on Google. I was very excited to meet him as soon as he told me he was from Egypt. This was suppose to be a tutoring session but considering it was our first we spent our first 30 minutes working on his goals and what kind of activities he was comfortable with but then spent 2 hours discussing culture, media, and news. So we sat on the breezeway right outside of CIES and spoke about our particular ambitions. I gave him the rap I had been giving everybody (TEFL, Korea, Graduating in December..Yadah, yadah, yadah). He then told me that he was a Masters graduate in Communication methods (Media studies). So we went about and started talking about the news coverage concerning Egypt. He told me that he did not trust sources such as Al-Jazeera, I was surprised. He told me that he preferred the BBC and that Al-Jazeera often gave pro-Morsi accounts of events and never reported (I knew this part) on the Arab spring in Qatar. I was surprised by this because, coming from the land of liberal blogs and news sources, thought Al-Jazeera was pretty good at covering these things. I often watch it online and have appreciated the perspective given and was very excited when there were talks about bringing it to the US. I did not say anything besides that I was surprised and let him tell me his opinion on it. which was interesting. He then asked me about the U.S elections and I filled him in with the candidate details, party platforms and the ultimate results of the election (controversies and such). We then went inside due to the cold and began talking about Egyptian history and eventually Islam. I asked him about the Koran and the role of Hadiths in Islam. I asked about the diversity of Islam and I learned a few things from him. We then met up with another student at CIES by the name of Samra. His English was better and he joined our conversation and answered some questions I was throwing his way. I would have stayed longer, I was enjoying myself, but I had to get back home to run some errands.