What’s going on everybody? My name is TJ Benson for those of you who don’t know me and for the next three months I’m gonna be documenting my travels here in Brazil. My boys Ryan and Zach brought up the idea of blogging on their website and I was like, “why not?” I’m going to be here for a while so I might as well give people a chance to see what life is like as a pro basketball player. I’m going to give a brief background of who I am for those who don’t know me. Born and raised in Phoenix, AZ. After attending Corona del Sol High School, I attended 3 different colleges over 6 years. I went to Mesa Community College for two years, Weber State University for three and finished up at Grand Canyon University for my last year. If you’re wondering how the hell I was in college for 6 years, the short answer is I broke my foot twice and had knee surgery so I was able to get two medical red-shirts. Somehow I’ve been able to persevere through all that shit and get where I am today haha. Also, the name of my club/team is Tijuca Tenis Clube. They are located in Tijuca which is in Rio de Janeiro.
I’m going to begin with last Wednesday which started possibly the craziest 48 hours of my life. Quickly though, I originally was supposed to be in Brazil August 11th but didn’t arrive in Rio de Janeiro until September 17th. So you can imagine the patience I needed to have when dealing with the uncertainty of everything over the last month or so. Anyways, last Wednesday began with catching a 7:30 am flight to Los Angeles, CA in order to finalize my visa. For those asking, Why Los Angeles? Well let’s just say that it’s the closest Brazilian Consulate and I had no other way of getting my visa the day of. Once in LA, I spent about 6 hours at the consulate because of non-sense. After turning my paperwork in, the lady helping me said I wasn’t going to be able to receive my visa for two weeks. This problem was solved quickly though and she was nice enough to let me pick it up at 2:00 pm later that day. Next, my boy Winston aka Dan Winterbottom picked me up to cruise downtown Beverly Hills. It was good seeing him and catching up because it had been a while. Arriving back at the consulate at 2:00 for pickup, I head to the window thinking FINALLY I’m going to be in Brazil in a day or two…I was wrong. Of course, the damn computer system for the entire consulate had to crash today. So I decided to stick it out and wait until 5:00 pm to see if they somehow came back on. My patience for the first time in 2 months was rewarded when the computers began working at 4:18 pm. This worked out to perfection as I was able to make my 6:40 flight and head back to Phoenix. 
Once arriving back in Phoenix at roughly 8:15, I decided that I wanted to fly out on Thursday (September 22nd) in order to make my game on Friday night. It was our team’s first game and regardless of whether or not I played I wanted to make that game. So began my 16 hour journey to Brazil which consisted of being on the plane for 15 of those hours. At 9:10 am on Friday, I had finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Despite being completely run down from only getting 10 hours of sleep in 3 nights plus being on a plane for about 20 hours in 2 days, I still managed enough energy to play that Friday night in our game. It wasn’t my best performance offensively, scoring only 2 points w/ 2 assists in 17 minutes, I felt good about my play. There were times I was completely lost though due to the lack of communication with my teammates and not really knowing the system. We ended up losing though by 4 points but played extremely well in the 2nd half after being down 15 points at halftime. After such a frantic and panicky 2 days, I caught up on sleep and took it easy over the weekend. Watched Forest Gump in Portuguese which was hilarious and I’m at a loss for words with Brazilian TV Shows. Even though I had no idea what the people were saying, the hosts and audience and concepts of the show were possibly the worst TV ever. I don’t really know how to describe the shit. It’s complete idiocy that goes on and my roommates laugh at it haha. Aside from that, my roommates and I (all three are Brazilian, two speak decent English) were planning on going to Ipanema beach on Sunday but it was cloudy and not good beach weather. Personally, I would’ve loved to go but I ended up sleeping until 1:30 so I doubt I would’ve had too much fun because I was so tired still…Ok, I definitely lied right there.
Seeing a bunch of Brazilian booty running on the beach would’ve probably woke me up just a little bit haha. Anyways, I’m glad I rested because we got two a day’s pretty much until our next game. The first two days haven’t been too bad but I just need to make sure I rest and take care of my body. Well I think I’ll go ahead and end things for today. I apologize for writing so much but so much has happened as you can see. I am going to give a few shout outs to my boys Trumaine, Zach, Mayo, Marco, Joe, Jon, Fittro, Tuan, Winston and my family. Mom, Dad, Holly and Casey love you guys. I can’t name everyone but I just want to say I love you guys and appreciate all your support. It has meant a lot to me. I took a few pictures of the crib and my gym so hopefully they get put with my blog. Anyways, I’m out for now. Until next time my friends, llllllate.
how do you play in those church shoes
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