Same Same, But Different

The Khmer word for "different" is "p'sain-p'sain," which sounds an awful lot like "same same" when you're speaking quickly. Hence the fabulously ANNOYING, yet often overused, joke: "same same, but different." You see it on t-shirts and stickers, tourists love it, and expats think they're clever for getting it. ...But as much as it drives me nuts, it perfectly describes how I can totally relate to my friend John's latest blog post even though he's serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Azerbaijan while I'm sweatin' it out in Cambodia. Maybe our day to day life isn't the same, and maybe he's sick of the snow instead of the heat, but fundamentally we're going through the same things. I can literally hear myself in almost every word of his post (and laughed myself silly reading it). Washing machine withdrawl, wondering what exactly we're doing some days, high highs, low lows, and everything in between. So here's a shout out from one kindred spirit to another: we may be miles apart, but PC service around the world is more same same than you think. Best of luck to him and all the other PCVs out there for another great, inspiring year.