Our welcome to Seoul press conference Yes, it was big news that Patty, Jack and I have arrived in Seoul. As you can see, the journalists were VERY excited to talk to us ...

OK, actually this was a press conference for Hines Ward, who is visiting Seoul with his mother for the first time since she left the country when he was a baby. The father was an African-American soldier and the mother left because of the discrimination she faced for mothering a mixed-race child. Things are much better now (winning the Super Bowl MVP helped), and Ward said he was "proud to be a Korean," which is something he didn't feel as a child.

I decided to cover the press conference, hoping for a few freelance opps. Sucker that I am, I showed up at five minutes to 9 for the 9 a.m. press conference. Turns out, that starting time was only a suggestion. There were about five people in the room. Ward took the stage at 10:05 a.m. At that point, there were probably 200 in the room. It was teeming.