[register] how to add another field in registration form & confirmation email not working

I need to have another field in registration form. It is name of county user comes from. I only need to get it in admin notification email (to manually set permissions based on location). Ideally it would be <select> but simple text input is good as well. I managed to add it to the form, but it doesn't get to the email. I know i need to add variable in AdminEmail.tpl and UserSelfRegistration.inc - but I cannot make it working.

another thing - confirmation email never worked in my installation. Is this option working in default?

kind regards, chris