Dies und Das

When you speak another language, your personality can change; you become more direct, you use different tones, it's like acting in a role.
Or when you don't know the words, your word use just becomes more economical. This doesn't always work. My boyfriend went to pick up a package and wanted to say, "I was expecting a package." But he didn't know the word for "expecting", so simply said "I was a package". Strangely enough, the woman understood.
On completely another subject, perhaps joining Orkut, the online channel, wasn't such a brilliant idea. Today I received an email four times from some nutter in India who wants to meet me. Will he pay for my plane ticket? "U r looking beutifull," he espoused. All very well and good, but also very creepy. But thus is the internet.
And on yet another topic, a friend of mine is having a baby. Not in Germany, but if she was there would be financial support from the government, a "stork wagen" to pick her up when she went into labour, and a name book from which she would be expected to select her child's new name. If it wasn't in the book, she'd have to leave to country to name her baby. I don't think I'd like to have a baby here, not that I have a choice in the matter. A bilingual kid would be great, but I'd want him/her to have the beach nearby and not live through long, cold winters every year. And of course Marmite for breakfast.