1. Tom's decision to take a gap year

On a rainy day, Tom was at home reading a book by Mark Twain and there was something that made him think about going overseas. He read the speech that Mark Twain once brilliantly said, "we regret the things we DON’T do more than the things we do". Thus, he decided to go to the land of his ancestors and take a year off there. His first stop is in Ireland. His mother once told him that their ancestors emigrated from Ireland to the USA many decades ago.

Look at the picture below and try to guess where Tom is.

This photograph has been taken in Howth. Howth is located on the peninsula of Howth Head, which begins around 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) east-north-east of Dublin, on the north side of Dublin Bay. The village itself is located 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Dublin city centre (the ninth of a series of eighteenth century milestones from the Dublin General Post Office (GPO) is in the village itself), and spans most of the northern part of Howth Head, which is connected to the rest of Dublin via a narrow strip of land (or tombolo) at Sutton Cross.
Howth is at the end of a regional road from Dublin and is one of the northern termini of the DART suburban rail system.

Howth Head is one of the dominant features of Dublin Bay, with a number of peaks, the highest of which is Black Linn. In one area, near Shielmartin, there is a small peat bog, the Bog of the Frogs. The wilder parts of Howth can be accessed by a network of paths (many are rights of way) and much of the centre and east is protected as part of a Special Area of Conservation of 2.3 square kilometres (570 acres).

The island of Ireland's Eye, part of the Special Area of Conservation, lies about a kilometre north of Howth harbour, with Lambay Island some 5 km further to the north. A Martello tower exists on each of these islands with another tower overlooking Howth harbour (opened as a visitor centre and Ye Olde Hurdy-Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio on June 8, 2001