Celebrating the End of 2020 at MEDICS!

The willingness to celebrate together, regardless of circumstances, remained strong at MEDICS! The new way of living, a.k.a. socially distanced, did not stop us from having a blast last Monday.

The festivities started with academic seriousness: the annual lab's assessment. Great work from everyone during this "special" year! Although COVID-19 affected us, as everyone, we were lucky enough to continue the majority of our projects remotely.

Simon challenged the team to a cook/bake off using specific ingredients (different nuts and Christmas spices, cranberries, a delicata squash and champagne or juice). To make things more difficult, the creation had to be related to neuroscience to get maximal points. Thanks to the judges for their rigorous (but sadly only visual) evaluations! Kudos to all for your originality and creativity!

The winner of the challenge was Caroline with a drink of her invention: "in Simon's head", which uncoincidentally boasted an impressive resemblance with our Esteemed Leader. Bravo Caroline!

An honourable mention went to Simon and Lynn for their superb MRI machine dessert. Great use of props and attention to detail!

The next activity was a virtual evasion challenge. A lot of fun and head scratching later, the two teams each won their challenge with at least 10 minutes remaining to the clock. The pictures below testify of our legendary insight and reasoning skills.

Left: the French-speaking team escaped from a magical forest. Right: the English-speaking team escaped from a prison cell.

The festivities ended with a lot of "awwws" and cuteness as we played the baby pictures game. Matching everyone with their baby picture was VERY obvious for some but QUITE challenging for others!

Thank you to the organizers of the festivities and for the gifts! Let's all take a break during the holidays to recharge our batteries. Brace yourselves for 2021!