Avoid looking like an American when in another country, say Roger Axtell and John Healy in their "Do's and Taboos of Preparing for Your Trip Abroad". This is a difficult piece of advice to follow. Mr. A and Mr. H offer what they consider helpful tips: don't wear baseball caps or sweatshirt with campus badges, be polite and avoid loud conversations in public. The trouble is foreigners mostly tend to look like foreigners. There is something about them. The more you try to blend in with the country the odder you look. Lots of eccentric English have tried this game without success. Lawrence of Arabia liked to dress up as a sheikh and Lord Byron as a Greek, and were seemingly impervious to the sniggers* they aroused among the locals.

(The Economist, June 4, 1994)

*snigger - riso contido.