And again, I have made a blundering idiot of myself, this time with the assistance and participation of Angela Luo.

I think this one of the most disrespectful things I have ever done.

We are taking a class called Zen and Japanese Culture with Professor Yamashita. This is a very popular course to take because it has NO EXAMS. I repeat, NO EXAMS. For our midterm, we’re supposed to keep a journal and for our final, we can either write a 7-8 page paper or do a project Japanese-related. So you can see why loads of guys come to Mt Holyoke to take this course and why there are like 50-60 people in a class, which is 5 times more than the usual MHC class.

Anyway, Professor Yamshita decided that today was the day to introduce us to the art of meditation.

We had to sit really straight: “…Imagine a string extending from your head, down your spine and ending at your rectum. Pull that string straight.”

We had to position our hands in a “lotus” position at our stomachs and concentrate on breathing in and out deeply.

So everyone was busy inhaling and exhaling air with the concentration of Buddhist monks. The whole lecture theatre was silent.

And then suddenly a loud “Yawwnnn…” came from behind.

I couldn’t help it. My shoulders started shaking with laughter. Mapuki where got people yawn when meditating wan! Some more so loud!

Then I heard a snort from next to me. I looked and saw Angela giggling away like she was on laughing gas.

That’s how it went for the whole meditation period. Me and Angela sat there trying to hold back our laughter, half filled with fear that we would get kicked out of the class for disruption, half filled with hysteria.

The class was entirely silent except for the choking sounds emitting from us.

One of us would calm down, then the other would think about the yawning fucker and snort and the vicious cycle would repeat itself.

I thought I would burst a blood vessel or get a hernia.

At the end of the class, Yamashita came over to us and said, “What happened? What’s so funny?”

We tried to explain to him about the asshole who yawned, but the more we talked, the more we giggled.

In the end we just clasped our hands together, pleaded “Gomenasai!” and stumbled out of class.