Lexical Differences

I've always thought that the different words that people have for the same things are very interesting. They do make it very difficult to have a conversation at times, though. I think that lexical differences have much more of an impact on a conversation than phoenetic differences. When people don't have the same words for things, here is no way that they will be able to understand what the other means. On the other hand, I think that if only the accents that are different, people are able to adjust to the accent and still understand each other for the most part.
Some lexical differences that I've encountered recently are mainly with people that live in different English-speaking countries. I have a friend down the hall from me from Bermuda, and we've already encountered many lexical differeces in our English. Just today, he walked into our room and looked at my roommate's desk and said "Wow, could you have any more stationary?" My roommate and I were so confused because both of us pictured personalized letters and envelopes as stationary, but when he said it, he meant all of her pens and pencils in her drawer.
My dad's side of the family is from Oregon, and there, they say pop instead of soda. I understand the difference now and it's not a big deal, but when I was much younger, I remember being so confused every time my aunt asked me if I wanted some pop. My mom had to explain that by pop, my aunt meant soda, although I'm sure I was still wary of what I supposed was a new kind of drink.
Lexical differences can lead to a lot of confusion in everyday conversation. I think that the differences are really interesting, though, and usually a conversation with my friend from Bermuda ends with him teaching me a new word for something and us laughing about how different our English can seem and how funny it was that neither of us would have thought to use the other's word choice.