»Travelling Memories in Germany« by Julian Castillo

I recall my father wearing this watch on special ocassions such as important family events, christmas, ceremonies, etc. He received this watch as a gift when he got married, so this must have been a very important object for him.

Even though my father knew that I don’t wear watches, he gave it to me as a souvenir, to keep me connected to my country and my family.

I had the chance to meet very nice people when I first arrived in Germany, most of them were international Erasmus students with whom I became very good friends.

Before their exchange semester was over, we threw a farewell party where we drank a bottle of Whiskey together, this bottle was signed by all and I was lucky enough to keep it as a souvenir of those nice times in Erfurt. I still keep it and show it to them when we Skype with each other, even though that happened over a year ago.

I brought my old book of Mormon. It is very important to me because I received it when I was baptized at the age of eight. Since then read it daily, I highlight important parts of the text and write side notes on it.
It is a part from my life, and I realize how much I have changed over the years as I read again my handwritten notes and highlights.

I received this notebook when I left home from a close friend of mine, so it is already a memory of a good friendship. I use it as a sort of journal to write about my experiences as a missionary, in the USA, Germany and soon also in Japan. When I get older I want to share with my children the stories of my life as a young missionary.

Back in Syria, we all thought at first that the revolution would bring positive changes, and that we could become a better country, maybe like Europe or America, but it went really wrong. I was saddened and angry to see what my country had become.

When I left Syria I decided to not take anything with me. I just wanted to go ahead and leave behind what I saw there, start a new life in a new country. I did not want to bring an object that would remind me of those times, I just wanted to forget.

Syria is a beautiful country with 12.000 years of history behind it. I hope the war is over so people can have a nice life there again, but for now I just want to forget about it and erase all those memories from my mind.

I had to start a new life from scratch since I left Syria, a new language, a new country, new friends. I lost the stable life I had once, now everything is new. It is not easy to start all over again, after you already spent 32 years of your life building a life.

This novel is to me like a door to a new life, like a mother that hugs me, it is a daily objective, it is my first meter in Germany, something solid I can hold on to in this new beginning.

I have a collection of postcards that I have been getting from different places where I was before. I have posted my postcard collection on my room wall, and when I look at them I remember of nice people and places I came across during my trips. I have around 20 of them.

This book was given to me by a good German friend. I have a great interest in learning the language and my friends here have helped me a lot to understand the expressions, the history and the culture of this country.

This is the first book entirely in German that I got. This was my friend’s favorite book as he was a teenager, because it is an adventure book about the WWI and this part of the German history, so he decided to share it with me to motivate me to keep learning. It is a reminder of my time here and our friendship.

I changed my religion because I did not feel very connected to Islam and the traditional beliefs of my family. My brother knew that, and he decided to support me when I started to follow the teachings of Zoroastrianism, a very old religion from Persia, even older than Islam. This is a reminder of my brother and the principles of my new religion: Good thoughts, good words and good deeds.

It has not been so easy for me to make German friends. I like the country and I have learned very much during my studies, but I have only international friends here. However, last year I went on vacation to France and I had a very different experience there. In a matter of days I had made a lot of French friends who made me feel at home. They bought this gift for me from a shop close to the Eiffel Tower, and I keep it as a reminder of those days. I want to go back to France one day and maybe live there because I felt at home.