How I Made a Living in Italy

In a previous post about why I moved to Italy I explained that the easiest way to make a living there was by either working as a tour guide, at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), or as an English teacher. I opted for the latter, an English teacher I would be! I followed the necessary steps in order to start teaching English. I applied for jobs during my last few weeks of my CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) training, and less than a week after earning my CELTA certificate I started working as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher.

In all honesty, the honeymoon quickly burned out. When I first started, I actually really liked teaching English and I was excited to plan lessons and activities for my students (both children and adults- most were older than me lol). Not to toot my own horn, but my teaching method was so highly received by my students that some of them paid me to give them private lessons. About a year later, I started getting bored with teaching and realized how much I needed to be doing something creative, like singing, dancing, making clothes, and etc. I tried finding work as a night club dancer for the longest time. Pause, not "night club dancer” like a stripper or something, but more like a fully clothed (for the most part) go-go dancer. In Italy, it's called a "cubista". It took a while before I found work as a cubista, but looking back on it, maybe it's because I wasn't going out to clubs as much. Then on New Year's Eve at my beloved AKAB night club, I ran into a friend who had a friend who was a higher-upper at the club and I landed my self a Thursday & Saturday night gig as a cubista.

To bump up my job side job as a cubista, I started sewing outfits for myself and the other cubistas. It was a lot of work, but it was totally worth it. Seeing my ideas come to life and acutally being worn and danced in gave me a rush. I continued working as an English teach, dancer, and seamstress until I left Italy. (Read more about why I left Italy). If I could have it my way, I would’ve ditched teaching and just worked part time and just worked as a seamstress and a dancer.