00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this is Five Days of Taking Classes.
00:08When I hear the word class, I think about middle school or high school.
00:12Oh my god, I hope I have fifth period free, please.
00:15I feel like once you graduate school, learning comes to a startling halt.
00:19That might be a little bit dramatic. I am still learning things in my day-to-day life at work.
00:23I just feel like I want to learn more these days.
00:25I'm in New York City, I'm surrounded by tons of awesome classes.
00:28So I started today, nice and easy, knitting!
00:33How long have you been knitting for?
00:35Just over a year. I actually learned to knit with We Are Knitters videos online
00:41that go through it super slow and really lay out any questions you have.
00:45And now you're an instructor.
00:47Yeah. Crazy.
00:49Fun fact about Lucy, I was in a knitting club in fourth grade.
00:53But truthfully, I've forgotten everything that I ever learned about knitting.
00:56How did you do that?
00:57Okay.
00:58We went over the basics of knitting and purling.
01:00She taught me all the different stitches.
01:02Uh-oh, alert, alert.
01:03I kept making mistakes.
01:05I kept doing it backwards, putting the needle in from the wrong side, wrapping the wool around
01:10the wrong way.
01:10But I got through the lesson just fine.
01:13And to be honest, knitting is so f***ing relaxing.
01:17So much so that I picked it up on the subway on the way home.
01:20And I kept doing it after work.
01:22And now, here I am.
01:23Look at what I made.
01:25This beanie.
01:30I read somewhere on the internet that learning a new skill increases the number of brain cells
01:35that you have.
01:36Is it true?
01:37The internet is a wild place.
01:39Who knows?
01:39But that same article told me that pottery in particular can really help with this because
01:43you're using so many different parts of your brain at once.
01:46You're using your hand-eye coordination.
01:48You're using your physical sensations.
01:50You're even flexing your creative muscle at the same time.
01:53So today, I got my hands down and dirty and I went to a ceramics class at the 92nd Street
01:58Y.
01:59The wheel is low-key, very hard work.
02:02Truthfully, I'll never really know if pottery helped to increase the connection between my
02:06brain passages.
02:07But at the end of the day, I walked away with a huge ginormous cup of coffee.
02:13I've really never seen anything like it.
02:15And now I'm going to have it at my desk and I'm going to get to say, I made that
02:18cup.
02:19You see that?
02:20I made it with these two hands.
02:23Covered in clay.
02:28How have I gone two days into this episode and not mentioned food yet?
02:35I've spent some time in previous episodes learning how to cook and learning how to prepare
02:39lunch and dinner in the comfort of my own home.
02:42But today, I decided to learn how to make a specialty food.
02:45Chocolate!
02:46It is one of my absolute favorite types of candies.
02:49Probably second only to Sour Patch.
02:52So today, I went to Tosh Artisan Chocolate in New York City and I had a private chocolate-making
02:57lesson with the owner.
02:58We went downstairs into the chocolate factory.
03:00She showed me her chocolate waterfall, her mixing machine.
03:04She had all these brightly colored sprinkles and toppings to put on the chocolates.
03:08The whole shebang from the factory to your mouth.
03:12We made everything from Mondrians to bonbons filled with passion fruit caramel.
03:17Ah!
03:19Okay!
03:21We did it in the shape of lips.
03:23I also painted them with edible glitter.
03:25Check them out.
03:26Mmm!
03:28Okay.
03:30I'm just gonna eat it.
03:32Mmm-hmm.
03:33That is rich.
03:38I come from a very musical family.
03:40My dad's a radio DJ.
03:42My brother's in a band.
03:43I was the president of my high school's drama club and of my acapella group in college.
03:48But today, I wanted to challenge myself to tackle a musical instrument that I not only
03:52know absolutely nothing about, but also that I don't think I've ever touched in my entire
03:57life.
03:57The drums.
04:03I headed out to the Collective School of Music.
04:05You have one, two, three, four.
04:08I had the best time at this drum lesson.
04:11I am not exaggerating.
04:13I thought I was gonna be horrible at the drums.
04:15I don't know why.
04:15I just literally had never sat in front of a drum set and I did not know what to expect.
04:20It took a little while to ease into it, but once I got that first rhythm down, I was really
04:25good.
04:27Honestly, I'm not kidding.
04:29For somebody who, like, never picked up a drum stick, never put independence together,
04:33and never read, that's really good.
04:36Yeah!
04:36I think the drums are kind of addicting.
04:39Cause I'm home now and all I want to do is continue playing.
04:42Got my pots and pans, my knitting needles.
04:45This will be the kick drum.
04:47One, two, three, four.
05:04It's Friday and this week I've taken four classes that are far outside of the realm
05:09of my normal day-to-day routine.
05:11I know that I'm not going to become a pro at any one of these skills just from taking
05:14one lesson.
05:15But in truth, one lesson is all it really takes to spark an interest in something.
05:20And picking up a new hobby or skill can really change the course of your life.
05:24So today I set up a one-on-one lesson with Refinery29's camera operator, Andrew Kennelly.
05:29And he worked with me to talk about lighting, camera equipment, all the gear in the studio.
05:34I even set up this very camera tripod set up and all the lights on my own.
05:39Didn't I, Andrew?
05:40Tell him.
05:41She did.
05:42I didn't even do anything.
05:43She's great.
05:44Well, he helped.
05:45Didn't I, Andrew?
05:49Mmm.
05:50Tomato juice.
05:53Comment below letting me know if you have any fun classes that I should try.
05:56And as always, let me know what you want to see next time on Try Living with Lucy.
06:01Hey, YouTube!
06:02Lucy Fink here coming at you live from Refinery29.
06:05Click here to watch the previous episode in the series.
06:08Right here to subscribe to Refinery29 on YouTube.
06:12And as always, if you want to see more Try Living with Lucy, click right here.
06:16The little I.
06:17You'll find it.
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