The first time that the Earthlings witnessed the Martian Circle and "singing recipes", was perhaps always likely to be awkward.  What may have made it more so, was that neither side was forewarned that there could be a problem.  The Martians probably knew that their method of doing food prep while singing together (lots of percussion added by chopping of vegetables in a rhythmic beat), was not a common custom on Earth.  Circle, being primarily a way of meeting, did not strike them as anything particularly unusual.  What they mostly did not realize, was that the idea of their having different customs than the Earthlings, was potentially a point of friction.

For their part, the Earthlings had known and expected that the colonists (as they called them, rather than "Martians", which is what they called themselves) would have lost some of their Earth (and American) customs, protocols, and procedures.  They had however (without realizing it or giving the matter any thought) assumed that their society was too small and too new to have customs of its own.  Or that, having them, they might want them to be respected.

It began well enough, with several of the Earthlings offering to help out with the cooking.  The Martians, led by Charlotte, who most often did this, were fond of what they called "singing recipes".  They were similar to Earth working-songs from past centuries, used to keep people in time (and in good spirits) when weaving cloth, sowing seeds, harvesting, or anything else with a lot of (repetitive) physical labor that people did together.  The food on Mars tended to involve a lot of chopping vegetables, and they made it faster and more fun by chopping in time to a song that they sang, usually just a lightly adorned form of the recipe.  They were not great works of art, but they were easy to sing along with (or, if singing was not something you did in public, you could chop in time to it).

The Earthlings were, of course, accustomed to music.  However, it was for them something to be listened to, performed by professionals with the help of acoustically perfect performance spaces and powerful software to improve it even further.  The Martians sang well enough for 19th century laborers, but by early 22nd century professional standards it was painfully amateur.  That the Earthlings did not join in, caused no offense.  That they reacted with wide-eyed, embarrassed surprise, and then winced at every slightly off-pitch note and every imperfection in the percussion rhythm, was a cause for considerable offense, all the worse because, since nothing was actually said, there was no opportunity to respond.  The Martians simply finished their songs, feeling awkward and embarrassed, and then angry at being made to feel embarrassed.  For their part, the Earthlings simply rolled their eyes in silence and wondered why the colonists did not simply stop singing, and finish the cooking as soon as possible.  Normally a highlight of the day for those who took part, that night it was a source of frustration and silently seething resentment.

All in all, it went rather well compared to what was happening over at Circle during that time.

The Martians had been anticipating that the first Circle with Earthling participants, would be a cause for celebration.  What had not occurred to them, was to tell the Earthlings what they had to look forward to.  They did, of course, say something during the first day, in several informal conversations around the Colony (especially in Building 29, where the Earthlings were staying), to the effect that Circle took place every evening around sunset in Building 3.

Oh, what is that? asked the Earthlings.  It's when we talk over what has happened that day, and decide what needs to happen in the future, said the Martians.

Aha, said the Earthlings, thinking to themselves, 'they have a meeting at the end of the day; got it'.

What the Martians did not say, was things like:
- Circle begins with all of the Colony in a literal circle, which is a way we emphasize to ourselves and to each other that we are all together, part of one team
- everyone, therefore, must be at Circle at the beginning (unless there was some physical or health-related reason they could not), to reaffirm that they were part of the team, and by being accepted into the Circle, receiving affirmation that they were accepted into that community as well
- any adult, or on rare occasion even child, can put something onto the agenda at the beginning of Circle
- if you do not care to stay for the discussion, you can leave once the agenda is finalized, but by doing so you are accepting that a decision will be made without you, and you will abide by it
- Oliver normally leads the assembling of the agenda at the beginning, writing it up on his precious blackboard; if you didn't ask for something to be on the agenda at the beginning of Circle, then it needs to wait for tomorrow.  Adding something to the agenda after Circle has started, means that everyone who left after the agenda was made, will not have been aware that it was going to be discussed, and so have not given their implicit approval to whatever the group decides
- Olivia and Liam don't talk much, but when they announce what the decision of the group is on the topic, that is accepted by everyone as being the decision of the group; this prevented the decision from being made by whoever was the most stubborn, and wore the others down
- if Olivia said, "well it sounds like we're saying that..." and then announces something that is completely out of step with what people at Circle had said (a rare occurrence, but in 18 years a lot can happen), then the others would all look at each other with confused expressions, and Olivia (perhaps nudged by Liam or Emma) would backtrack and reopen discussion

Of course, part of the reasons the Martians did not say any of this, is that they had never exactly put it down in writing or even verbalized or thought about it in exactly so formal a manner.  The way in which Circle happened, had evolved over the last eighteen years, rather than being planned out.  Most people are not great at telling others what their personality is like; they are too close to it, to have a perspective on how it compares to others.  In a similar way, the Martians had seen other cultures on video screens, in shows from Earth, but they had only ever actually lived in this one, the Martian culture, and they had trouble realizing what needed to be explained.

Mildred, unusually for her, decided to stay at Circle that second day after the Earthlings' arrival.  She was, no doubt, doing this because that was when Earthlings were showing up at Circle for the first time.  In her journal that night, she typed in the following (typing instead of dictating, because it was definitely not suitable for others to overhear):

"Well that was a bit of a catastrophe."

"I'm trying to figure out if they were actually trying to be jerks, or it just came naturally.  Really, the more I think about it, the more I believe they were doing it on purpose.  They kept interrupting, they showed up late or left early, then came back, tried to reopen issues that had already been finished, tried to put new things on the agenda midway through, rolled their eyes a lot, kept interrupting, and every other manner of jerk-dom you can imagine short of punching someone."

"At one point, I thought Harper was going to go into a screeching fit.  She is normally not too chatty at Circle, not as much as Noah or Elijah or Ava, but if you see her lips start to make a straight thin line, and her eyes start to twitch a little bit, you are in for it.  I have learned this the hard way.  But I guess the Earthlings didn't know what they were in for, and they just kept interrupting and they also didn't ever want to accept anything Olivia decided on.  Olivia was a little frustrated but she stays calm pretty much always, so she didn't show it very much.  Harper was about ready to blow up, but Alexander managed to convince her to leave with him to go to singing recipes instead.  Which, I'm told, was also a bit of a mess."

"At first I thought maybe it would have been better if only their leader, Helene, had intervened.  She was more quiet, most of the time, and seemed to be a little more tactful than some of the rest.  But now that I've had more time to think back on it, I'm wondering if she was using the others just to do her dirty work, like she had put them up to it so she could sit back and watch how we reacted.  It's almost like Elijah was right, except that instead of attacking, they're just undermining everything.  They're being more subtle than he expected."

"I suppose we aren't being very subtle.  Maybe we're not stealthy enough.  I think I need to get closer to the Earthlings, to be able to overhear what they say to each other.  I wonder if I could convince Dorothy to take me with her to that spaceship.  No, probably that would be too obvious, they would be able to tell what I'm up to.  I'll just have to keep a close eye on the ones who stay here in the Colony."

"The tough part is, that somehow I will probably have to drag Stanley along."