Page 146 - 662

silver tie. Throughout lunch, Herbst's expression remained calm
and neutral and he rarely smiled, choosing the occasion with
care. When speaking of the opera, of live theatre and of music, he
answered with all seriousness, but once the topic of baseball came
up, the corners of his mouth twitched. He nodded enthusiastically
and, finally, he smiled.
"I stumbled upon baseball here. I found out where one of the
baseball fields was, and went there with the boys. One of the times
I went, there was a baseball game going on, and I met many of the
people here who are involved in Ukrainian baseball," Herbst said,
obviously excited.
He's seen two baseball games in Ukraine since then, but said
that the next live sporting event he'll attend will be one of his son's
basketball games. Like their father, his sons are also athletic, and
enjoy baseball in particular.
"There were two possibilities for me," Herbst said of his career
path. "It became clear that I was not going to be a baseball player
about the time I was 13. By the time I was in high school I wanted
to become a diplomat."
The path wasn't always so clear. When he was in college,
Herbst realized that he'd prefer a career in education. When he
finished graduate school, he decided to become a teacher.
He said that he'd likely be a teacher today, "if it hadn't been
really brutal getting a teaching job when I graduated."
He was married to his wife Nadezhda (a native Russian-
speaker) by then and they'd recently had their first child, so when
the Foreign Service offered him a job, he said yes right away. "I
haven't looked back since," Herbst said with confidence.
Herbst wasn't bothered by Le Grand Cafe's wait-staff, who
milled about the bar, looking official in white shirts and bow ties,-
but doing absolutely nothing.
"The decor is French but the service may still be Soviet," he
said, with a hint of irony.

149