Wow - this one took me back to the three years I was living in the UK. (1998-2001)
I was a miserable SOB, for a lot of reasons. Mainly, I was unhappy because I was a junior enlisted USAF person who couldn't afford to do anything, but that unhappiness spilled out over everything else. Throw in a little post-partum depression shared with my wife, and the misery just snowballed.
By the end of my tour, I didn't like anything about England. "Why is there a 'prawn flavour' for everything? Why must everyone make the same lame jokes about the way I talk? Why can't local businesses be open when I need to buy something?"
Listening to this story gave me a very weird sensation of seeing both sides at the same time. In my gut, I could feel exactly what Adam was feeling. I could sympathize with what he was going through, and relate to the pain - at the same time, Barbara embodied the sense of wonder for an alien culture that I like to think I would have in her situation. Barbara is who I wanted to be when I went abroad.
As with most alien stories, this wasn't really about the aliens as much as it was about us and the ways we don't connect with each other. But that said, I found that conflict between Adam and Barbara to be very compelling, and I thought this struck a nice balance between showing us a unique, separately evolved alien species and holding back just enough detail to foster a sense of curiosity and wonder about them.
Well done, Celeste!
And, as always, Dr. Amy's performance fit this story beautifully. I'm always happy to see
her name in the narrator credit!