How are you?

And so for this blog post I attempt to answer the frequently recurring question - "How are you?"
Such a silly question really... why do we use it all the time?!

The oxford dictionary definition of the word "how" shows that it is
an• adverb with 4 meanings
1 in what way or by what means.
2 in what condition or health.
3 to what extent or degree.
4 the way in which.

This doesn't make any more sense of the question in my opinion...
I think I must just have a problem with short unspecific questions...
I will demonstrate

"What are you?" - I'm a human (I think)
"Who are you?" - Does my name define who I am?
" Why are you?" - Why are you not?
"When are you?" - When I am not.
So you see, short and unspecific questions are really quite difficult for me to answer...

So to the question that so many people have asked me... how am I...

It really depends on when you ask...
If you had asked me
- on my first weekend here I would have said... I'm feeling sooo excited about the frenchness, suddenly remembered why I study the language and why I chose to come here in the first place
- during my first week I would have said... I'm feeling kinda lonely. Exploring on your own 5 days in a row even in the beating hot sunshine and in a beautiful beautiful city and getting lost every day wasn't quite as fun as I thought it would be.
- If you had asked me at weekends I would have said... refreshed and welcomed. The church here has been such a breath of fresh air, even if it has been a bit hard to follow at times.
- If you had asked me anytime in the last couple of days I would have said I'm enjoying doing one of the things I enjoy most, meeting new people (at the training course for assistants up in the mountains). And getting incredibly excited about
that old clichéd concept once again! Also feeling less lonely having met so many other people in exactly the same boat as myself.
- If you ask me anytime I would usually tell you that I'm feeling somewhat Glasgow sick
- And if you asked me right now I would say... I'm feeling fairly at peace, having just remade the realisation that my God is more stable, unchanging and bigger than one of these
So you see... it hasn't exactly been the easiest question to answer and the main reason for this is, although I have now been here for 2 weeks I haven't had much of an opportunity to settle down. Work hasn't started yet, haven't even got a timetable yet, I still feel as though I'm in limbo between countries, still riding on the tail end of this endless void of a summer holiday... but I start teaching on Monday so watch this space.

I hope this answers all such questions adequately for now but what I want to know is... How are you?