Yawning
After moving to the newly assigned gate for my early morning flight, a woman in her fifties sat next to me. The delay was some type of ordeal, even for the most morning of types, but what she did afterwards was probably bound to happen sooner or later.
She started yawning loudly with an estimated frequency of at least four yawns a minute, her eyes closed, her hands resting on her lap, palms facing each other. This went on for at least five minutes. Based on her movements, appearance and position, I concluded that these were not meant as simple yawns but was some kind of new-age-like breathing meditation adapted for the occasion. I am not sure if it was due to my will to simply observe, but her yawning did not have the slightest contagious effect on me.
Soon after she finished, we were finally asked to start boarding. With a swiftness you would not expect from a person who has just yawned more than the whole of the airport population on that very day, the woman next to me and her friend bypassed the long rows of queuing passengers and shamelessly snuggled their way through, becoming some of the very first to board the plane.
Obviously, completely ignoring one’s surroundings is a character trait that can take many forms.
