i lasted one day on the in silence. i spent 8 hours or so over the day. in a room with maybe 8o others trying to observe my breath. the girl next to me whom i was also meant to share a room with for the next ten days had the sniffles or was the only heavy breather in the crowd and me with my minor neurosis for such repetative sounds. this day lasted fr about two months. i wanted time to be slower but it is terrifying how slow it can go. i told the teacher that i was finding it hard; he asked i my mind wandered could i bring it back to breath observation within five minutes? FIVe minutes i thought!? i've brought it back sent it away and wrapped it ornately 500 hundred times in five minutes. i said that i was concentrating on her breath and counting it and he said i could try breathing a little bit harder. as if i needed this incitement to compete. the last straw. i packed my bags at 4.00am the next day when everyone had gone back to the hall, put them in the car in the darkness and went back to sleep until breakfast at 6.30. finally i got to leave after one month or at lunchtime. then i got a twix from a vending machine :)