There's a joke in Canada: "how can you tell a Canadian backpacker in Europe?" The answer is "he has only one Canadian flag on his backpack." Canadians have (or had?) a reputation for being much more polite than Americans. A lot of Americans went to Europe masquerading as Canadians to avoid European expectations. Today I had the sewing kit out to fix the backpack anyway, so I tried to sew a small Canadian flag patch onto the backpack. I was ignominiously defeated - the needle actually broke. The backpack is made of thick material, as is the patch. Apparently I'm going to Asia with only my passport to identify me.