On Travelling as a Candian.

Stuntmother posted a comment on my last post how she has shouldered her "share of collective blame for my strange and smelly country" while she has traveled. This inspired me to explain my thoughts on traveling Canadians.

In my travels I have met a lot of militant (for the lack of a better word) Canadians. They were so Canadian that they would avoid any non-Canadians for fear they would sully their intrinsic Canadian-ness. These were often the Canadians who would sew a Canadian flag patch onto every piece of luggage or carrying device they own. It was a little extreme. These Canadians were also supremely proud of the fact that occasionally you may encounter an American who would also sew a Canadian flag patch onto something, just to escape some of the negativity they may encounter.

While I can understand that being Canadian is something special and I am a proud Canadian I can acknowledge that there are some other amazing people in the world, who are *gasp* not Canadian! While in Korea I made several friends who weren't Canadian and I spent a vast amount of my social time with them. I was shunned by some Canadians for this, but those Canadians were wing nuts and I wouldn't have befriended them at home anyhow. Rather than pay attention to where someone came from I focused on who they were, and that's why I had such an amazing time. Besides don't we travel to broaden our horizons? 'Cause I know I don't just travel to experience the bugs. (Oh Montezuma, how you ravaged my guts.)

So to just confirm, I love being Canadian, I never sewed the flag to anything, but I do have it tattooed to my leg.

That all being said, if you've travelled and you're Canadian did you sew the flag on your bag, and if you did why? If you're not Canadian what do you think of Canadians doing this, and if you are American, would you do it to escape the scrutiny?