UME TIMES - New Year's Countdown with Mr.305

This year, I went to Miami to celebrate the new year. What made this year's holiday thrilling was the free concert by Pitbull, or Mr.305. Pitbull is a rapper born in Miami to Cuban parents and has dozens of US hits including two No1 songs. The concert really made my time in the US.

Miami was warm and some people were swimming at South Beach. When I checked in our hotel, a lovely young lady spoke to me in English with a Latin accent, which was nice but a bit confusing since I felt as if I were in Mexico or Spain. The fact is that 60% of the people in Miami speak Spanish. Little Havana is famous for its Latin population but in fact everywhere in Miami you can hear people speaking Spanish.

The Bahamas are a former colony of the UK and people speak English. The downtown is full of beautiful colonial architecture and colorful houses. In the Bahamas, they paint houses in accordance with their function, e.g. yellow=national hospitals and schools, pink=government offices.

They celebrate New Year's Eve with a gorgeous parade and some Bahamans kindly recommended us to stay for it. Unfortunately, we had already got a flight ticket back to Miami.

Back in Miami on New Year's Eve.
Miami celebrates the new year with the Orange Ball rising ritual, which Miami concocted to rival New York's dropping ball. The Orange Ball is a big orange attached onto the Intercontinental Hotel and is somehow moved upward as the new year's countdown proceeds, reaching the top when the clock strikes midnight.
At Bayfront Park, Pitbull showed up around 23:45. At the stroke of midnight, watching the fireworks, Pitbull was in a nostalgic mood saying 'when I was a kid, I was watching these fireworks.......'
He played for more than 30 minutes, and even my not-so-interested partner seemed to be impressed with the concert, which was much longer and more proper than had been expected.

So, 2015 came in such a glorious way for me and I hope you had a great time too, wherever you were.

WORDS

• 305：Pitbullの出身地マイアミの市外局番
• ritual：儀式的な
• concoct：作り上げる、でっち上げる

WRITER

伊藤先生
TOEIC(R)テスト、英検、TOEFL(R)テストなど、資格対策クラスを中心に梅田校で週6日授業を受け持ってます。とてもフレンドリーで、生徒さんとすぐに仲良くなってしまう先生です。文法やライティングクラスなども、とても分かり易いと好評です。