Nichols’ Family Blog
It was midnight and we were going out to eat. While we were looking for a place we passed some people selling snails. Later we found a restaurant and I ate one of the snails. All I had to do was suck it out of its shell. it was greasy, tough, and very slimy.
If you want to learn more about those cute little guys you can visit this website.
Sheer rock walls stretched up into the cloudless blue sky of northern Spain. The huge crack in the earth winded through the tree littered hills of Asturias. From a plane, the cannon would look exactly like spaghetti spilled over the hills. One large, white van drove along the road in the shady abyss. Even though the ‘road’ had two lanes, cars could barely pass without nicking the walls.
The van stopped. Justin and Nathan jumped out of the car bursting with energy. They stumbled down some loose stones to dip their feet in a refreshing stream. The water rippled over stones, making short lived shapes of white and green. Rolling up his pants, Justin waded across the stream. Nathan and their father fallowed.
Next to the stream a huge window in the side of the rock wall opened up. Through the window one could see a hill crowded with bushes and long grass stretching up. Huge gray mountains loomed over the top of the hill.
Breathing in all the glory of the mountains ahead of him, Justin clung to the roots of grass, steadily getting closer to his goal. Nathan and Dad caught up with him just as he reached the top. The little trio panted and stared at the view. After living only three months in northern Spain, the view did not seem particularly beautiful. Just big rocks, lots of trees, some streams flowing down hills and through valleys and a couple tiny towns thrown all over the landscape carelessly.
After a moments silent viewing, Justin’s father turned around and started down the slope. Justin and Nathan lingered for a second more, and then jogged to catch up. Soon they stood on a strip of moss over a smooth, water made gully sliding down to the bottom of the hill. Every drop of water had been sucked up by the sun.
The gully was smooth as this clever simile.
“Lets climb down that way, it would be shorter.” Dad suggested.
Justin turned his head. “It would also be harder.”
Dad nodded, and then screamed.
The moss underneath his feet had come loose. Justin jumped back. “Dad!”
sliding, Dad tried to grind to a stop with his elbows and knees.
But it was no use.
He gained speed as he went down the rickety slide. Groping at some grass somehow springing out of solid rock, friction finally checked his speed. He lay there motionless.
Nathan carefully stepped closer to the edge. “Dad?” He whispered under his breath. “Are you OK?”
Justin couldn’t breath. His heart pounded as fast as a humming birds.
Groaning, Dad lifted his body to its sore knees. “I’m fine.” He groaned. But at the same time as the words came out of his mouth, Justin noticed that the bottom of Dad’s shirt slowly turned red. The same red liquid dripped from his elbows. Flies immediately began to gather.
Justin and Nathan stood half stunned, staring down into the miniature cannon.
Dad observed his situation. There was no way out… Or so it seemed. By climbing up one side of the smooth walls, he was able to find hand holds in a precipice hanging five meters over his sons.
“Lets pray.” Justin suggested.
They did.
“Maybe you should go back! It doesn’t look like you down from there!” Nathan shouted.
After one last attempt, Dad fallowed Nathans advise. Once he was back into the horrible slide, he looked around again.
Then Justin had and idea. “I’ll pass you a branch! K?”
Dad nodded. Picking up a dead branch, Justin laid down on his belly and passed the long branch down. Dad took it, and then started to walk up the steep incline.
The climb down reflected the complete opposite of the climb up. The beauty had faded from their eyes like morning mists. The joy was gone.
300 steps later, they reached the road. After washing off in a stream, they went home to clean the cuts and bruises.
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This experience showed me that you have to be ready for death. What if you died today? Would you be ready? So what do you do, if life could end with one wrong step? The answer is plain; live every day with love and forgivness. Don’t let the sun set while you still hold any hatred in your heart.
In September, 2007, during the time Mom went to see her mom, our GiGi, in the USA, Dad took us couch surfing in northern Spain. I’ve finally got the video uploaded 
Our bluegrass style is plenty different then reggae, but even so, we had a great time playing some music for some folks at a bar in Aviles, Asturias, Spain. We weren’t planning to play in a bar. We were expecting to play some music for our 2 couch surfing hosts in their small apartment, but they had invited so many friends over they decided to open up the bar that there mother owned around the corner. We ended up performing a gig for about a dozen people…
Here’s a little clip of “I saw the Light”. Just remember, we are better than what we appear 
Check out that body beat’n happy slappin’ madness though! 
Aaaww… a refreshing glass of Sidra. Throughout our travels and adventures it is not uncommon to “try something new”. Pouring and drinking Sidra falls into this category. The art of this culinary activity begins first with pouring the Sidra from two arms length high to “break it up” and give it some fizz, then after quickly gulping 2/3 of the 1/2 full glass, one must chuck the rest of the Sidra on the ground, be it inside or outside. You will soon see this in action…
After moving out of our house in Camarma de Esteruelas we, the Nichols clan, scooted across town to a house were our friends lived. But right now they are on vacation, so we have the house to our self.
All the stuff in my bedroom would fit in a box and a suitcase if it weren’t for the unicycle, so it was really easy to move for me. Once we got to the house we swam every day in the pool. I practiced diving a lot at first- and got really good at it- but then I stopped swimming a little when I had to get 6 stitches in my lip.
The reason for the stitches in my lip is because I fell on a slippery rock on top of a small water fall in the wilderness. I went to the emergency room to get them stitched up and it didn’t hurt a bit. The doctor said that I couldn’t get the stitches in my lip wet, so I have to keep my head out of the water whenever I swim.
Yesterday me, my dad, my mom, Renae, and aunt Katie went to Madrid to go to the Museo Athysen-Bornemisza (a museum) after we came out, while my family was sitting a safe distance away, I positioned my self by a big water fountain in Parke Retiro and spun my Chinese yo yo doing all kinds of tricks. After doing that for a half an hour or so with a hat in front of me for the people walking past to drop some money in it, I earned 3 euros! When I got home I added in to my piggy bank (which is really just a plastic bag).
Last night I went up to the school to play soccer with some people. We lost by a lot, but it was fun anyways. We invited them to go swimming afterwards, but everyone had to go home. Also last night we watched Spanish TV. We haven’t watched any TV for a long time because we didn’t have a TV at our old house on the other side of town.
There, I told you some of the experiences that we have in Spain. Being in Spain is really fun.