Earlier this week, my friend and I were walking down the street in very high spirits.  It had been a good day, we were smiling and laughing, and I saw a green car parked next to the tramway.  Now, my friend also is an English-speaker, so when it is just the two of us, we tend to speak in English (and yes, I know there are some out there who would reprimand me for that!).  I looked at this lovely green car and said "I would take a green car." to which she responded with immediate laughter and exclaimed that I was losing my first language.  You see, the normal American would say "I'd like a green car" or "I wouldn't mind a green car", but not as often would "I would take a green car" be said.  She has lived all over the world, so she knows very well how unconscious direct translation can occur.  I wish I could say that this was the only time I forgot the typical English response or phrase, but alas, as my brother and sister-in-law can testify, I have used the word "hankering" multiple times after searching for what possible word I could use to explain the depth of my desire to see a film or go cross-country skiing.  Hankering.  That is the only word I could come up with, and I am neither southern nor Dutch (see here), so why would I use hankering when, as my brother pointed out, I could just say "I really want to go cross country skiing"? 

I've only been out of the country for a few months now, but I have a feeling that this pattern will keep on happening.  Plus, I've been picking up on British phrases and terms as the majority of the English-speakers I hang out with here are in fact English.  My brain won't know what to do with itself when I'm around Americans all the time again.