First Impression- Mexico City

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"Ring..........!" I didnt remember setting the alarm the night before. Ohh, it was the school bell and i could see student assembled in the basketball courts, waiting for the heardmaster's speech. I arrived late yesterday at Veronica's and didnt realise there is a school right behind her house. . The school scenes actually entertained me in many ways...In one afternoon, i saw student learning ballroom dancing. On another occasion, there was salsa music coming from the school in the evening, it seemed like they were having party. Also from my room, i could see range of mountains. Veronica told me some of them are active volcano.

First day in Mexico, we did the usual tourist stuff. Visited various places - Zocalo, Palacio Nacional, Templo Mayor, Cathedral Metropolitana...

Zocalo meaning base, is one of the world's largest city squares. It is centrally located in Mexico city, hence a good starting point to explore around. Apparently the plaza is paved with stone from Templo Mayor and other ruined Aztec buildings by the spaniard conquerer, Cortes.
what a way to do recycling!

What really gets my attention was the ruin in Templo Mayor. It was the Teocalli of Aztec Tenochtitlan, in other word, the ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan. The temple is where the Aztecs saw the eagle, perching on a cactus and devouring a snake. The Aztec believed the exact spot where they saw the eagle is the center of the universe. This symbolic eagle is adopted as the Coat of Arms of Mexico. It also appeared in almost any souvenirs you can find in Mexico. I was quite disappointed to see the scale of damaged done to this temple by the spaniard, else i could have seen 40m high pyramid amid of Modern Mexico City. Despite the damage, there are still lots of interesting artifacts lying around - a small chac-mool statue, the platform where sacrifice rituals were carried out, the faces carved on the stone wall...

We ended our day by wondering aimlessly around the city. The city was packed with people and its street markets were in abundance. Shops workers were shouting out prices of their goods, people were haggling at the stalls, not to mention the latin music blasting away from every corner, all these contributed to the lively scene that seemed lasted through out the night.

Fist day Conclusion:

All my worries about the crime in this city were out of the window after my first day in Mexico. Having Veronica with me definitely helped, as I speak very very little spanish.

I knew it was very impatient of me to say that i was not excited by what i have experienced so far as it was only my first day here. For me, Mexico city is just another big city. What i had in mind of Mexico city before i arrived was -
Under the ferocious sun, a few cowboys sitting next to giant cactus, having siesta and drinking tequila.
I just havent seen any of it yet...
Vero, dont take it wrong way, not criticising your country 😊, just what i felt, compared to other places i have visited. Still want to thank you for showing me around, couldn't have done it without you.

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Photos

The faces -tzompantli
The 'tzompantli' is characterised by its 240 stone skulls covered with stucco.