Buongiorno!! This was the greeting I used the summer I was 17 years old and spent three months working in Milan, Italy. If you model professionally, travel is unavoidable. In fact, it is necessary to further your career. And at some point, you are going to have to travel internationally and the better prepared you are prior to leaving, the more comfortable you will be once you arrive at your destination.

If you are simply going overseas on a direct booking to work a specific job and return home, then some of what I'm about to cover might not apply. In situations like this, the airfare, ground transportation and lodging may have already been handled by your client. But if you are a fairly new face attempting to break into a new foreign market, please pay close attention to these safety measure so that your international experience will be a positive one, and one that you'll want to repeat!

Before you embark on your trip, take time to study the language. With so many foreign language lessons on tape and CD, its easy to pop it into the player in your car and learn key phrases that will help you communicate in your new surroundings. Three key phrases I found most useful in Milan were "How much is this", "Where is the bathroom" and "Leave me alone or I'll call the police". That pretty much got me thru most of my days!! Yes, many countries do speak English, but you can't bank on that. If you will learn simple greetings and attempt to at least greet people in their native tongue, you will earn their respect and they seemed more willing to offer assistance. It shows you are interested in their culture.

Do research on the places you are traveling to. Learn what the area is known for. Leather goods? Wine? Champagne? Jewelry? You'll want to be certain to experience the area for what it is famous for. You will also know what type of souvenirs will be the most special to bring back to your loved ones. Fodor's puts out a very helpful guide for almost any region of the world. They cover the basics on currency, hotels, transportation, even what airports are best to fly into. I normally purchase one of these guides for whatever area I am traveling to and read it on the airplane. They can be found at any chain bookstore. Its a handy reference guide to use once you arrive. Also, a pocket translator can also prove helpful in certain situations. When you are traveling by cab, make notecards that clearly show the address of your destination so there is no miscommunication with the cabbie about where you are headed. It will save you a world of problems to do this simple thing.