Editor's note: Peter Kim is our first official guest author on the Student LoanDown blog. A graduate of the University of California at Riverside, Peter is a Client Relationship Officer with Wells Fargo International Personal Banking. He enjoys telling people that the word "eater" is in his name! (SS)

You've probably seen it: the Southwest Airlines commercial  with two young men enthusiastically playing a baseball video game. The batter raises his controller, getting ready to swing and then…CRASH! His friend hurls his controller into the really expensive looking flatscreen television, which falls off the wall and shatters the glass entertainment center.

"Ding! Want to get away?"

That ad makes me think about the last time I actually had a chance to "get away." I was in my last year of college, and my school had what they called the UC Education Abroad Program  — an opportunity for students to attend strong academic programs at over 150 universities in nearly 50 countries such as Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and South Africa. Pretty cool, right?

Unfortunately, even though I wrote a great five-page thesis on why I was worthy of the program, I missed the application deadline — and my opportunity "got away."

However, my really smart friend Jane did not miss the deadline and traveled for six months to Korea  (our homeland by blood) to study. I was so jealous of her experience — all the beautiful places she visited, the different types of mouth watering foods she got to eat, and blah blah blah.

But one aspect of her trip that proved challenging for her was managing her finances. At one point she lost her ATM card, went through a dramatic ordeal trying to get a new one, ran low on cash, and had to do jumping jacks just to get money from the US.

Has that ever happened to you? If so, or if you're planning a trip soon and would like to guard against that sort of hardship, you might want to think about an International Personal Banking (IPB) program. It's designed exclusively to handle the financial needs of our international clients, including students!

IPBs offer virtually all of the same consumer products as the retail branch — such as checking, savings and time deposits, with dedicated, multi-lingual Relationship Consultants (like me) to help you with any issues in regards to your bank accounts. IPBs even allow you to send wire transfers without actually having to go into a bank!

What's all that mean? Well, my friend Jane could have managed her funds from her Wells Fargo account as she needed them and had me rush an ATM card to her wherever she was in Korea!

Have you ever experienced anything like Jane while traveling? Share some of your crazy travel stories with us!

I'll get you started with some famous advice from Susan Heller: "When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money."