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You've raised an interesting question about whether holiday romances can ever really last or not. I don't know anyone who's ended up with their true love from a two-week fling but maybe I just don't know that many truly romantic souls!

Happy endings and holiday romances always make me think about the tale of the eponymous heroine of the play and film Shirley Valentine. Look away now if don't you want to have the ending ruined!

Shirley Valentine is the story of an unhappily married, middle-aged, working-class woman living in Liverpool. Her best friend wins a trip-for-two to Greece

and Shirley goes off with her for the holiday of a life-time. Shirley promptly falls in love with Costas, a handsome local man she meets there. After her best friend goes back to Liverpool at the end of the two weeks, Shirley decides to stay in Greece to be with her man. But then she finds out that Costas has holiday-making women falling in love with him every other week. She is just one of lots of women Costas uses his chat-up lines on and his smooth ways with. She's devastated. But then - and here's the unique twist in this holiday-romance saga - rather than somehow making Costas magically fall in love with her or going back to her unloving but safe husband, she dusts herself off and settles into a new life in Greece as a completely independent, self-sufficient woman living alone. And she loves it!

So, happily ever after for some, and a life alone for others, who can say what love is?

Turning now to your blog, I thought we'd look at using the indefinite article (a and an) and the definite article (the), as well as a few vocabulary items.

Articles
I know we've looked at this topic a few times before on the blogs here and for those of you who have been following the blogs for a while, this might seem repetitive, but I think it's worth revisiting this important but sometimes tricky area of English because, as I'm sure you all know, one of the keys to learning is revising, revising, revising.

We'll look at just two simple rules today. I think articles are especially tricky for Russian speakers because I believe Russian doesn't have articles. But in English, if we're introducing a singular topic for the first time, we usually use a or an. And if we are referring to something that is unique, that there's only one of, we use the.

Here are a few of examples from your blog where you needed to add an article (I've underlined the added articles below):

I had been preparing to be an economist.

I devoted all my free time to singing in an academic choir.

We were a perfect team.

And here are a few examples from your blog where you got the article the just right:

We wanted to see the world.

We had one amazing week in the sun on the Black Sea.

We didn't win the prize.

Can you take a look at these sentences and decide if they are correct or not? I've edited them a little bit so that we can concentrate just on your use of articles (a, an or the). If the sentences are correct, you only have to write 'correct' or 'OK' but if they're wrong, your homework is to re-write the sentence correctly.

1. Everyone must have a dream!


2. It turns into defined plan.


3. We had great time.


4. Our performances were based on classic European manner of singing.


5. Varna is a pearl of Bulgaria.


6. We met a lot of interesting people.


7. We visited his friends' house with lovely enclosed court.


8. The first event was International May Choir Competition.


9. I returned to Moscow with broken heart!


10. I fell in love with the country, not with the boy!

Vocabulary
There are a few items I thought you might like some help with. Your writing is really very good, and to take it to the next level, it's all about finding and learning to use new vocabulary and ways of expressing yourself. I hope these few pointers help:

1. I was super young and sweet when I was in my 20s.

Rather than:

I was on my super sweet 20.

Incidentally, in English we tend to talk about sweet 16, rather than sweet 20.

2. The thought of doing something different crept in.

Rather than:

Thought to change something crept in!

3. We exchanged thousands of e-mails and messages!

Rather than:

We exchanged thousands of e-mails and massages!

This suggestion only works if your long-distance relationship was much less physical than I'd imagined! :)

4. I started to learn Bulgarian.

Rather than:

I started to learn Bulgarian language.

That's all for now.

Have a good weekend,

Nuala

Vocabulary:
love conquers all - no matter what happens, if you love someone you will be happy with them in the end
fling - short relationship which is not very serious
souls - people
eponymous - an eponymous character in a play, book or film. has the same name as the title of the play, book or film
the ending ruined - be told how the story ends
a trip-for-two - a holiday for two people
the holiday of a life-time - a holiday that is so expensive or so far away you're likely only to go there once in your whole life
chat-up lines - phrases used by people to start conversations with other people they are sexually attracted to
smooth ways - behaving in ways that are polite, confident and able to persuade people, but in a way that is not sincere or true
devastated - very upset
twist - change in the way a story unfolds
saga - long, complicated story
dusts herself off - fixed expression used to talk about moving on after a set-back or negative experience