Page 103 - Microsoft Word - Guiding light final version 0955 1006.doc

beautifully once and warmly invited everyone are now in winter, and the tight buds are waiting patiently for the spring to blossom once more.’
In the first decade of the new millennium Scotland started to see increasing numbers of Chinese and Russian visitors and the Scottish Government approached the STGA to ask if it could run a "fast track" course to train new Chinese and Russian speaking guides.
‘The STGA didn't have a fast track option but agreed to run a Green Badge course for one year.
‘Pat and I concentrated on the Edinburgh, Glasgow and the route to Inverness via Trossachs. They were a great group and we had a lot of fun with them.
‘There was a lot of publicity. I remember being interviewed in the Chinese Garden at the Botanics with the Culture Minister, receptions at Bute House, going to the Open in St Andrews and lots of newspaper articles and a radio interview.
‘We all received scarves, which I still have, showing the colours of the Scottish flag and the Chinese one.
Xiaopeng Bao said: ‘I just remember we were really happy and everything went well.” Two of the students, Ilia Kuznetsov and Robert Bowles, went on to become Blue Badge guides.
Sofia Soboleva, one of the Russians, has written Guidebooks to Scotland in Russian and says she was really lucky to be part of 2008 group.
‘For a start, I was expecting a baby, and when, at the very first interview Pat asked me: “when is your baby due?” I answered: “Tomorrow. I think it was quickest interview in my life!”
‘There were two of us, Natasha Gun and I, with new-born babies. When we had our weekend sessions, our husbands had to come to the centre with the babies to give us a chance to feed them – and it is how I discovered that Scottish Parliament is the best place in Edinburgh for the young mum! You could feed the baby in the posh baby room, eat a quick lunch and be back to studying in one hour!
‘Next spring I was waiting for my exam and my teenage son was walking with the pram around the building. It was icy cold day, and Mary, when she found out about it, said: “Bring them here, immediately!” So both my children had to sit in a waiting room with other guides- to-be. They both were born and brought up between exams – hope it will make them a bit more academic!
‘I remember couple of funny stories. We had a geology lecture one day and we Russians struggled with the understanding of one particular English word. We started to whisper to each other, and then our teacher turned to us and said in very clear Russian: “Perm period, my friends, Perm period!” We laughed our socks off, and we found out that our teacher spent a lot of time digging in Russia and could have given this lecture in Russian!
‘Our last trip was to Inverness, and it was overnight. One of my colleagues, Ilia, organised our accommodation, and five of us stayed in a lovely historic B&B on a river bank. Next day it was found out that two of us forgot to pass the room keys to the hostess and one girl accidentally put a towel to her suitcase!
‘The hostess was not impressed with us, she had to chase us around Inverness and said, that if it is a level of tour guides self-organisation, we’d better to do not give up our day job!’.
Blue Badge Guide Maggie McLeod who ran the course with fellow guide, Pat Blain, said the STGA got a lot of publicity out of the initiative as did the Scottish Government who paid 50 per cent of the student’s fees.
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