appreciate my co-workers more

Yesterday, I brought them in my spare box of Yorkshire Tea and some real milk (milk powder? In tea? I am physically pained at the very thought), and taught them how to make a proper cup of English tea.
I put it in the communal coffee stash and told them to help themselves (on the condition that they swore never to mingle it with milk powder) whenever they wanted.

Now, if that isn’t appreciating my co-workers, I don’t know what is.

they’ve been pretty awesome to me over the past 10 months. Imagine someone turning up in your office not speaking a word of your language. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been as patient as they all have with me. They always go out of their way to help me and make sure I’m involved in the community and not sitting at home feeling lonely, and they give me random presents like the tickets for the sumo wrestlers’ beer party and the wooden box from Takai san’s omiyage (it’s just a box, but the shop is very famous – apparently the Japanese equivalent of Harrods – and it has golden tigers painted on the lid, and I’m touched they thought that I might want it rather than just throwing it in the bin).

Actually, now that I’m sitting here writing this I can’t believe how nice they’ve been over the year. Obviously I say thank you, and every now and then I bake them scones or biscuits in a clumsy show of gratutude, but sometimes when I’m stressed with work I get annoyed because of the language barrier and forget that the barrier exists for them too and yet they never take it out on me.

So I’d like to stop and think for a second every time I find myself getting irritated at work. Just breath, and relax, and remember that it isn’t their fault any more than it’s mine. They’re a really great bunch of people, and I’d like to express that feeling towards them more often.

Thus, a new goal is born.