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Last week was the start of a series at Landmark Center called “Urban Expedition”. Basically its a Sunday event themed around the history and culture of a particular country including music, dancing, activities, food and art. I remember that Landmark did some of these last year, and they’ve just kicked off the 2010 series.

The first week’s featured country was Korea, which we were bummed to have missed. This week, it was Hungary. Dominic, for one, was excited to learn something about this country. The youth soccer league that he plays in every year uses countries as their team names, and he played on Team Hungary a few years ago. Almost-4-year-old Vincent was more dubious, but I promised there would be dancing and he seemed into that.

When we arrived at Landmark, first thing we saw was a poster for the event. Admittedly, the poster over-promises pretty seriously with the headline “Travel The World Without Leaving St. Paul”, but the hyperbole was forgivable once we got inside.

[caption id="attachment_3132" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The poster outside."][/caption]

If you’ve ever been to a family event at the Landmark Center – like fall’s famous “Great Pumpkin Festival” – you’ll recognize the format. Easels with signs mark different areas, and there is a main stage with music or other entertainment.

[caption id="attachment_3137" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The folks tales area."][/caption]

The welcome table was staffed by some very nice ladies who seemed impressed that Vincent could hum “Ode To Joy” until I told them that he learned it from a video game. They told us that the kids get “passports” which they can get stamped at each Urban Expedition event they attend. Pretty cute. They even got their pictures taken for these “passports”. The picture-taking session pretty much revealed the major personality differences between our 2 kids. When asked to smile, Dominic gave a low-key smirk, while Vinny just kept sticking his tongue out at the photographer. Sweet kid.

[caption id="attachment_3134" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Vincent, of course, stuck out his tongue."][/caption]

Once inside, we saw a dancing group on the main stage and tons of different activities around the outside of the space. Among the more hilarious parts were a station dedicated to Hungarian Erno Rubik and his infuriated Rubik’s Cube, and a Chess Master who would take on multiple opponents at a time. Vincent really, really wanted to take the guy on despite not having ever played the game. He kept repeating “I can win, I can win”.

The craft activities were simple but fun, and frankly just being in such a spectacular building makes everything a bit cooler.

[caption id="attachment_3138" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The Chessmaster."][/caption]

Despite the over-hyped poster outside, the event was actually super fun and we all dug it. There are at least 3 more events in this series coming up, and I think any or all of them are worth checking out. Next Sunday, February 28th features Colombia, then Israel on March 7th and Ghana on April 11th. More info can be found on Landmark Center’s site.