What do most brides do a few weeks before the wedding? The usual answer is not to go on a work trip to South Korea. But it has been on my checklist! POTUS headed to Seoul for the Nuclear Security Summit and I went with him. It was definitely the best option among my choices. This trip to Korea or a weekend trip to Cartagena, Colombia the weekend before the wedding. So I just made sure that we had all the big things definitely planned before I went so that when I got back, I could spend the next three weeks tying up the loose ends.
So we headed to Seoul last Friday on a,
commercial flight. But don't feel too sorry for me because it was a direct flight to Seoul in Prestige Class on Korean Air which was a rather pleasant experience. The 14 hour flight went by exceptionally quickly and I was so productive! We got there about 12 hours before POTUS did which allowed us the time to go out to dinner at an awesome real Korean BBQ place and then get some sleep.
When POTUS arrived, he basically went straight to the DMZ (we went on a different day which I will blog about separately!) and we did some liveshots. But in the evening, I was assigned to be the pool producer for part of the events at the President of Korea's house. The Koreans are really original in their name of the executive mansion. Since it has a blue roof, it's called the Blue House. I think they copied our originality.
I was supposed to be the pool producer for the official arrival and book signing. I admit, it's not heavy lifting in the producer world and pretty much a trained four year-old with a security pass could produce the event. But it's a great opportunity to get out of the workspace and actually see something beyond the conference room in which we work.
So POTUS arrived and Mr. Lee (I went to Detroit with the two of them last fall!) greeted him with a big hug. The first thing POTUS did was to go sign the guest book. And after that, the pair of leaders stopped to get their picture taken. And then they walked up these huge steps to where they were going to meet.
We thought we had some extra time to go get set up for the press conference with the two leaders but all of a sudden, the WH press handlers told us we had to run upstairs because the travel pool (not my network) had been stopped by security and they weren't allowed in. So we literally sprinted through the Blue House and up the stairs and went into some room where POTUS and PMoRoK were seated chatting having a bilateral meeting. The whole event lasted about a minute and I never had a chance to take a picture because I was busy catching my breath. I know you're not supposed to run in the house but in this case, we had no choice.
After the bilateral meeting, we finally went to the room where the press conference would take place. The rest of the US press corps was still stuck in security and they kept saying that the presser would start on time. Which if that had happened, it would have been a problem because on the American side, it was me and one print reporter. We would have been the only ones who would have had to ask questions. Not that I wasn't prepared but I wasn't really prepared! :) I would have come up with something but I was exceptionally relieved when the rest of the press corps was finally let in!!
I was supposed to be the pool producer for the official arrival and book signing. I admit, it's not heavy lifting in the producer world and pretty much a trained four year-old with a security pass could produce the event. But it's a great opportunity to get out
We thought we had some extra time to go get set up for the press conference with the two leaders but all of a sudden, the WH press handlers told us we had to run upstairs because the travel pool (not my network) had been stopped by security and they weren't allowed in. So we literally sprinted through the Blue House and up the stairs and went into some room where 
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