Martin's Apero

Friday evening was Martin's apero. His whole lab group came (plus some of their partners) and we had a little barbecue on the top floor of the chemistry building. Of course most of it was indoors because it was quite chilly out with occasional rain showers. Thomas (he's french so his name is pronounced Toe-mah with the stress on the mah part) gave Martin a 3-liter bottle of champagne so we started off all sharing that. Thomas was born and raised in the champagne fields so he knows his champagne.

Julian presented Martin with a farewell gift from the group which is a night with dinner at a nice hotel somewhere in Germany. They decided since we like to explore new places that this will help us start exploring Germany. The hotel has a spa so I'm all set! It's also surrounded by vineyards, biking/hiking trails, etc so it will be a good time.

Here is David, lighting the grill with various flammable chemicals. You'd never guess he's one of the most brilliant chemists, would you?

Here's a little rain cloud, doing his thing:

Here are a few of the nicer group photos. This is us posing with most of what is called the "French Connection" - there are a lot of french speaking people in Martin's lab. Martin is actually the only native English speaker in the lab right now. I'm not sure who will proof read all of their papers after he leaves.

People stayed out and partied until 3am so Martin had himself a good sendoff.