[island101]

About: Lauren, 24 years old from San Jose, California; blogger, traveling around the world.

Story:

For the past year I’ve been traveling and writing about my experiences in my blog. I hope to someday make a career of travel writing. Since I don’t get paid to travel, I try to find odd jobs to make additional cash to help fund my trips. I just landed in Chile last week for what will be a tour of Central and South American countries. Chile is a very beautiful country, at least what I’ve seen so far.

The day after I landed I started looking for odd jobs to give me extra spending money. I often check universities because they usually have short-term jobs to help students make extra money. I checked out a local university and saw a bulletin board that was advertising jobs. Fortunately, I took a few years of Spanish in high school, and could read and understand the postings.

One of the jobs that caught my attention right away was to model for an upcoming art class. Since I was already on campus and was only going to be in town for a few days I thought I’d find the teacher and see about the opportunity. I asked around and was shown the direction to the teacher’s office. I wasn’t sure if he would be in, but thought I’d try just in case.

I got lucky, the teacher was in his office. He was an older man in his 60s and looked like they typical art teacher, very bohemian, but friendly. I told him about my adventures and that I would only be in town for a few days and asked if there was an opportunity for me to model for his class. He told me he needed a model for a class he was teaching the next day. He told me that that class was a human figure drawing class, and that the models pose nude, and asked if I’d be OK with that.

I don’t know why, but when I first decided to model it never dawned on me that I’d be asked to pose nude. I think I was just excited I found something that could potentially work. Now I felt a pit in my stomach as I learned the details.

I told the teacher I wasn’t comfortable with posing nude, but that I would be comfortable posing in a bikini. He told me it wasn’t possible, that if I wanted to job I’d have to pose nude. That’s what the students are expecting as part of their learning.

OK, I lost that part of the negotiation, as I had to either pose nude or walk away, but thought I’d try to at least increase my fee for posing. The teacher agreed to give me 50% more than the advertised rate. I accepted.

The next day I came back to the campus and went to the teacher’s office just before 1pm. He showed me the classroom where I’d be posing, which was on the other side of the hall a few rooms down from his office. He told me he was going to the classroom to start the class, and that I can get undressed in his office and put on a robe he had hanging on a hook and then go to the classroom. The teacher left the room and I grabbed the robe and moved over to a part of his office that was hidden from the window on the door. I quickly stripped everything off and put on the robe.

I took a deep breath and walked into the hallway. There were students walking through the halls. This immediately brought back memories of nightmares I had as a kid of being naked in school, only this time it was real. I held the robe tightly around me and walked as quickly as I could to the classroom, opened the door and walked in. It was a small auditorium with a space in the middle for the model and chairs and easels situated in a circle around the central area.

The teacher introduced me to the class and told them I was traveling from the US and would be their model today. The teacher told me I would be doing four poses, each facing a different part of the class so students will get practice drawing from different points of view.

The teacher said they were ready to proceed and asked me to hang up the robe and move to the center of the room. Here we go. I took a deep breath and removed the robe, gently placed it on a chair and walked naked to the center area of the room surrounded by the students who would be drawing me.

The teacher walked next to me and started to describe my first pose when the door to the room opened and two students walked in. They were obviously in the wrong room, as when they looked up and saw me standing in the room naked they stopped in their tracks and backed out of the room.

The teacher explained the first pose. With this one I was facing the front of the class, sitting on the floor in a crouched position. This at least gave me the advantage of hiding much of my body. It felt weird being the only nude person in front of these people, but I guess it’s normal in the art world.

For the next pose, I sat on a chair facing the back of the class with my arms at my sides. After we were done with that pose I was told I could take a break, so I walked back and put the robe on. Then I decided I’d walk around and check out the drawings of the students. They were all very talented. I wish I could have taken some of the drawings with me.

This gave me an opportunity to talk with the students. We spoke in Spanish because most didn’t speak English. They came from all over Central and South America. I told them about the countries I would be visiting and they told me some of the places I should check out.

After the break I went into the third pose, which was facing the left side of the room. For this one I stood up with my arms outstretched. This one took a little more energy to keep my arms up. Part way through the pose my allergies got the best of me and I let out three big sneezes in a row. I’ve never sneezed in front of people while nude, so I laughed a little to myself thinking how ridiculous it must have looked to them.

It was finally time for the fourth and final pose facing the right side of the room. In this one the teacher brought a blanked and asked me to lie down on my back and use my elbows to prop the top half of my body up. It was a little uncomfortable and the teacher noticed the look on my face and asked if I could smile a little. He said he wanted this pose to be a “little sexy.” Excuse me? I just ignored him, cracked a smile and kept my pose.

After we were done with the last pose I walked over and put the robe back on. The students and teacher thanked me for posing for them. Then I walked through the crowded hall again back to the teacher’s office and got dressed. Five minutes after I was dressed the teacher entered the room and paid me. He said I did a great job and asked if I wanted to pose for another class later that week. I told him I couldn’t as I had other commitments and then I left his office. Of all the odd jobs I’ve done since I’ve been traveling, this was the strangest. It was a good experience, but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again.