post #3 "When I Was a Soldier"

Synopsis:  Valerie has just found out that she has been assigned to a top secret part of the Isralei army, the inteligence sector.  Soon after finding that out she is sent to her new base which is near Jerusalem and her love, Jean-David.  She soon figures out that she is the brightest student in her training class and thefore she will be punished the hardest when she messes up, which is proved when she recieves an 80 on a test and her leave is taken away from her.  She retakes the test a few days later and afterwards she goes to the cafeteria and has a panic attack where she couldnt move and was very hot.  She is sent to the hospital and taken care of and sent back the next day.  She is required to see a theripist from then on though.  After her training is finaly complete she is sent to an underground bunker were she and her comrades read, take notes, and interpret information on the Jordians air force.  She and her unit enjoys this, one girl in the group falls in love with one of the piliots and later on sees him on TV only to releize that he is a fat old man.  Valerie finally gets another leave and visits Jean-David only to find out that he has a girlfriend with whom he is living with and in her anger Valerie leaves.  She goes to the Tel Aviv and goes to the beach there but forgets that she must keep her gun on her so it prevents her from swiming but she dips her feet in, she makes a promise to herself that once shes done with the military she will return and take a swim.  While still in Tel Aviv she meets up with her old friend Gali who is a homosexual and a very good friend to her.  They catch up and she remembers why she felt so close to him before, its because he was a great listiner and gave her good advice on her life.  Once back at the military she finds out that she has been assigned a mission and will report to another base in the morning.  The base she is assigned to is none other than her best friend in the military Enyat who greets her warmly and together they prepare for the mission they are about to embark on.  The mission is in a spy plane where they are listing for pilots speaking arabic.  After the missions is complete and the chapter concludes it flashes foward about a year Valerie and Enyat are finaly through with their service and the first place the go is the beach in Tel aviv.

Authors use of voice that shows culture:
the  quote from the book "I was bowled over by the fact that he'd confided, it felt like a huge demonstration of trust."
the way she words this shows that she really does appreciate the trust that people give her which is the way she was raised and that she also doesnt expect things like that but gladly accpets it.