#07 -  Elif Ozbayrak (Elif)
Autor: Leo Pinho® | Publicado: 2010-09-03T17:49:00-07:00

Nationality: Turkish
A song: Jorge Ben – Chove Chuva
Facebook profile

Again Fresher’s Week – tough week, I might say. All the undergrads having fun and I myself finding a hard time to fit in (masters start their studies and activities a week later). I was down at Loco’s with 3 English kids trying to convince me that the Amazon Forest is an international territory, ruled by the United Nations (problem with drunk people is that they need to be over convincing, especially when they are talking nonsense).
Blabla here, blabla there and I see this woman coming in. She is brunette, long straight hair and undeniably trendy. Not conventionally trendy dressed, but in her own particular way, everything seemed to match perfectly even if it was completely different from what those “wannabe’s” underground, blondie, “I’m so hot” girls wore. She was authentic, she had an identity, she was just a woman in the pure expression of her self. Oh… and I forgot to say: she IS HOT!
Days later, I found out that (lucky me) she was one of my classmates. However, she was always with this security Turkish guard. If I wanted to get closer to her, I needed to gain his trust (later on, we’ll talk a little more about this young man). Walking to our classroom, I came next to those two and of course, I introduced myself to him first (respect is necessary, let’s face it) and she came next. That was just the start.
Elif is my Turkish Princess. A free bird with total aversion to the idea of being or feeling caged. A harmless spirit, always with a smile in her face. Elif is passionate about life and “since you were given this gift, live it as much as you can!” Believe it or not, I feel inspired by people like her, people who realizes that life is happening out there. People that realized that making their own histories, living their own destinies instead of watching ready-made stories on tv or books. She’s the owner of her own destiny and you know… It comes so naturally from her personality that she doesn’t seem to care. 

And guess what is the place that she wants to know the most? Guess what kinda people she believes to share the same essence as her? If you guessed Brazil/Brazilians, you’re right. If she is right, that’s what we’re gonna find out.
Once me and Elif were in my room, trying to work in this future paper. That was back in April and Rio had suffered quite a lot with this heavy rain. That was all people in Brazil could talk about by that time. From a friend, I received this email with a video that some random guys recorded in the streets, during the chaos. As soundtrack, Jorge Ben – Chove Chuva.
-&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "What song is that?" – She asks-&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "Did you like it?"-&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;"Yes, that’s really nice! I loved it!"-&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "Ok… so sit down here and lets have some Brazilian culture immersion."
Tim Maia, Jorge Ben, Seu Jorge… I saw her sparkling eyes and her smile coming out when I showed her Moro no Brasil (Farofa Carioca) video. 
-&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "See!?!?! This is how I picture Brazilians in my head! Happy people! People who does these crazy things! This is SO AMAZING!"
She was convinced. Yesterday she just called me telling that she bought the tickets. In February she’ll see if the dream matches the reality. If it will, I don’t really know. What I know is that she’ll definitely find her way to have her unstoppable share of fun.
Just one last observation: Elif spelled backwords is “File”. In Brazilian slang: cute/hot chick. Sounds appropriate, doesn’t it?!