Granny Phen's Wonderland: 大象奶奶的美國日記

It’s been a long time since my last update, today I’m sharing my takeaways for the movie, “Devil Wears Prada 2”, and my new channel’s name, "American Trash" (which is me LOL). Please be on the lookout for its debut.   My takeaways for the movie “Devil Wears Prada 2” are as below:Everything is about perspectiveDo It for yourselfLive a Life that values the most to you - if everything has a price tagIf you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow me so you won’t miss my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

This episode, I talked about: A movie "Taipei Exchanges"  talking about a coffee shop , exchanges & stories in it - highly recommend! WikipediaEnglish TrailerTaipei Exchanges Theme SongThrift Sores Message to my exIf you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow me so you won’t miss my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

Counting down to 2026! For those regions in 2026 already - Happy New Year! We have several hours to go in the USA.In 2025, my top three reflections are: Olive joined my life as a little tree from hell, haha. And I am getting my Green Card. Lastly, I’ve picked up painting. What about you? Comment to let me know. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care! See you in 2026!

Wheww~ It’s the end of the year! In the North of America, we have Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays! This is also the time people reflect, give thanks, and donate to help those in need. In today’s episode, I’m sharing how I've donated, and my reflection of the year. What about you? Comment to let me know. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

It’s been a really long time since my last episode - Some updates in my life, including my first painting sold in an exhibition at a local gallery. Thank you for supporting my work! And sharing a novel I read recently got me rethinking love and marriage. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

I am an introvert, so I always feel I should be a cat person, until I met my cat, Olive. She was abandoned so she always follows me around when I am at home. There have been quite a bit of adjustment for both of us, stay tuned if you’d like to hear more. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

Have there been any singers or idols that represent your childhood memories? Jay Chou is someone iconic at the time when I was in high school. My cat, Olive, has been adopted into my household pretty well. We are gradually fitting into each other’s lifestyles. The American Youtuber who’s dedicated to Taiwanese popularity and education is Aiong.If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

I’ve adopted a stray cat from a nearby animal shelter. Things got started roughly and as stressful and tiring as having a new human joining my life. Have you adopted animals? How did that feel to start with? Leave a comment to let me know.  If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Take care & Bye-bye!

Today is the eighth day of my fertility program. I am expecting to have my egg retrieve next week!I’ve set up my living will - During this process, I’ve chatted with a lot of people, whether to be my witnesses, or share their surgery experience with me. I’m grateful for those connections.  If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

Day 3 of medication ingestion in my fertility program!I am going to share some mistakes I’ve made during the ingestion. If you’ve ever experienced egg-freezing, or any fertility program, I’d love to see your comments to let me know how you’ve navigated it.  If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

Continuing the last episode, let’s talk about things I could have done better when I first arrived in the US. By the way, I’ve put out a display of my latest artwork on my Instagram. If you have not checked that out, go to @elephant.phen to support my paintings if you will.The interview of Matthew Hussy is here. And his book, Love Life. I hope they can help you as much as they helped me. If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

For people living in a foreign country, we've been asked most is, CULTURAL DIFFERENCES! Here we are. Let’s talk about culture differences today!By the way, I’ve put out my latest artwork on my Instagram. If you have not checked that out, go to @elephant.phen to support my work if you will. If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. Thank you, and take care!

Let’s talk about something IN SEASON today! Listen to Taiwan’s KOL and an adult product manager share tips on how to make your intercourse comfortable and happy!The original video link is here - No explicit content except product pictures, and only available in Mandarin. If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen. 

Do you have childhood besties? Do you have such friends, that sometimes they’re your great companions, but sometimes they’re like your shadows, following you, or maybe spying on you?In this episode, Let’s talk about friends.If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. You could also follow me on Instagram at @elephant.phen.

In this episode, the updates is I've started a fertility program, and I am sharing my feelings about the whole process, though it's just the beginning. If you'd like to check out my pictures, welcome to follow me @ IG:elephant.phenIf you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. Thank you, and take care!

In this episode, we are summarising an episode from Fan Chi-fei’ interview as below. There seems to be English subtitles available. 台股大跌幾百億融資斷頭？川普怪招出不完，大家挫勒等？ft. 財經專家 阮慕驊 | 斐姨所思【阿姨想知道】 EP234IG:elephant.phenIf you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. Thank you, and take care!

In this episode, we are going to share a song, “Island”, by a duo My Bubba composed of Islander Bubba and Swede My. My BubbaMy bubba Goes Abroader DocumentaryCat's Chowder [Lady Flavour] EP119 Cuddling Mi-PongIG:elephant.phenIf you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. Thank you, and take care!

Do you love stargazing? PhenPhen is an astronomy fan! Today let's talk about Sky Meadow State Park, a scenic park with very low air pollution and hosts astronomy events throughout the year. Hear what local people love about it! Sky Meadow State ParkCheck out the photos Granny Phen took for the park on Instagram at elephant.phenIf you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. Thank you, and take care!

Let’s talk about books this week! In today’s episode, PhenPhen chatted with M.B., the staff from the Middleburg bookstore about her top three recommendations of the week for children's books. Check out below listing for your children to prep for the raining days - The Magnificent Book of HorsesJonty Gentoo - The Adventures of a PenguinWheels - The Big Fun Book of VehiclesHere is PhenPhen’s recommendation for the week - The Hidden Life of Trees: A Graphic Adaptation: (of the International Bestseller)IG: elephant.phenIf you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. If you like my podcast, please give it a 5-star rating, and follow my future episodes. Thank you, and take care!

I remembered I talked about Harpers Ferry before - Here we are again! Let's hear what other people visiting there say about Harpers Ferry Lower Town and West Virginia as a whole, what they like about - Check it out! Music VenueNational Park Service Things To DoCorrection - "Maryland Height cliff face is currently closed until July 31, 2025 for Peregrine Falcon's Nesting" - I used a future tense - Sorry for the confusion.If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. Don’t forget to hit the [Follow] button, and give me a 5-star rating. See you next time, take care and bye bye.

Middleburg, VA. is a picturesque town located in Loudoun County, approximately 45 miles west of Washington, D.C. Middleburg has earned the title "Nation's Horse and Hunt Capital" due to its rich equestrian heritage, including foxhunting and steeplechase events.I had the privilege of speaking with one of the staff members in the Middleburg Museum , Chesie, who has lived in Virginia for the past eight years. Let’s hear her thoughts on Middleburg and Virginia.  Websites you could check out about Middleburg, VA. -  MIDDLEBURGFILM.ORG CHRISTMASINMIDDLEBURG.ORG https://www.themiddleburgmuseum.org/If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. Don’t forget to hit the [Follow] button, and give me a 5-star rating. See you next time, take care and bye bye.

After Feb. 18th, there has been a wave of distress among my community. We wondered, Would Taiwan be the next? I happened to work with a couple Ukrainians in my workplace. My heart goes out with them reading all the progress relating to the ceasefire, and my tears drop thinking about how similar we are on the international political avenue. Today's episode referred to the episode on the same topic from the channel LINE Today and hosted by Fan Chi-fei. The original episode in Mandarin can be found here.If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time. Don’t forget to hit the [Follow] button, and give me a 5-star rating. See you next time, take care and bye bye.

What comes to your mind when you hear about Taiwan? What's Taiwan's semiconductor magnate, TSMC's relationship to the company which surged to the spotlight over the past couple years - NVIDIA?In today's [Phen Story], I’m sharing two videos. The first is an interview with Yang Guanglei, former Director of R&D at TSMC, hosted by Fan Chi-fei. They discuss whether Trump’s tariffs could impact Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, TSMC’s expansion into the West, and how cultural differences might pose challenges for U.S. semiconductor localization, including Intel’s role in this landscape.The other video is an interview with TSMC’s 93-year-old founder, Morris Chang, hosted by the YouTube channel Acquired. I stumbled upon it by chance, but it’s entirely in English and filled with fascinating insights. Even if you’re not familiar with semiconductors, Morris Chang’s stories will keep you hooked.The links are as below:A strength and weakness for the U.S. and China? Taiwan's semiconductor dominance but lack of global perspective? ft. Professor Yang GuangleiYang GuangleiAcquired Exclusive Interview with TSMC's 93-Year-Old Founder Morris Chang: Stories About Jensen Huang, NVIDIA, Apple, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Samsung, IBM, and QualcommP.S. Apologies for my incorrect pronunciation of the word "tariff". Hope that does not impact your understanding of the script. If you've made it this far, I appreciate your time. See you next time, before then, take care and bye bye.

Today is Valentine's Day! I am going to share an episode that I came across accidentally. Here is the original episode.The podcaster's name is Liu Xuan, he grew up mostly in the US, but for Taiwanese, his name has been somewhat familiar, mostly due to his father, a well-known author, Liu Yong. In the episode, Liu Xuan invited his wife, Cardin, to talk about their 2024 - the ups and downs, and reflections, and sharing thoughts that they might not yet have a chance to talk to each other. They mainly talk in Mandarin, with some English in between. If you like my podcast, I would appreciate it if you give me a 5-star rating, leave a comment. And if you've reached this far, I truly appreciate your time, and wish all your loved ones, including you, a Happy Valentine's Day!

When talking about the Amazon Rainforest, what comes to your mind?In today's episode, we are going to talk about TFFF - A momentum currently under discussion in Brazil that is using the Amazon Rainforest as an investment in the stock market, in order to have a sustainable funding for the conversation and protection. TFFF stands forThe Forests of the Future Fund.This topic is inspired by the recent episode hosted by Fan Chi-fei onLINE TODAY, which talks about the same topic but in Mandarin. Please check out the episodehere.If you like my podcast, please give a 5-star rating, leave a comment, and smash the subscribe button.If you've made this far, I greatly appreciated your time. See you next time, take care and bye bye!

It's the Year of the Snake in the Lunar New Year - Let's talk about Red Envelopes. Do you know what scenarios Taiwanese usually give red envelops and any taboos around how much you should put in it? Today's episode is inspired by Fan Chifei's video where she talked about how she upset her mother by mistakenly put the amount of money that included a number "4", which pronounced similar to "death" in mandarin. She also chatted with her staff about the different way of spend the new year holidays with family and friends, and any games they would play together, and sometimes, a little gambling for fun. The original video in Mandarin can be checked out here If you like my podcast, please leave a 5-star rating, and leave a comment to let me know what topics you'd like to know about Taiwan or our culture. If you've gone this far, I really appreciate your time. Before next time, take care and so long!

Recently, Taiwan’s hotels stopped providing toothbrushes, and toothpaste. This seems to have sparked a lot of discussions. To me personally, has been a new normal in the US and some big cities in the Western Europe for some time, as far as I noticed. Do you like it? What's your view on this? This topic is inspired by an episode which talks about the same topic in Mandarin and hosted by Fan Chi-Fei, on her another Youtube channel. The original episode in Mandarin can be checked out here. In addition, in most part of the North Hemisphere, we've experienced relatively colder winter in most countries. In the US, even in the East Southern area, we have 10-inch of snow recently. I encourage everyone with bandwidth, considering donate or volunteer to help local community in need to go through this brutal winter. If you like my podcast, I would appreciate it if you give me a 5-star rating, leave a comment to let me know if you like or dislike my content, or any other topics you’d like me to talk about. I really appreciate your time if you've reached to this far. Thank you, and before next time, take care and good-bye!

In 2025, I am adding a new topic called [Phen News / Fun News] I will select one news story that I have feelings about to share with all of you. The thought is that most of the news stories being broadcasted in Taiwan or adjacent countries are produced in Mandarin. I hope to bring some of those stories to my English-speaking friends or listeners. Today's topic is, "House Sitting" which was inspired by one episode via the platform, LINE TODAY . "House-Sitting" means someone takes care of another person's house while living in it. Here is the episode talking about House Sitting in Mandarin, hosted by Fan Chi-fei, a seasoned journalist who reported on U.S. news for Taiwan's press and television stations for over a decade. She is now based in Taiwan and dedicated herself to the awareness of global news in Taiwan. In this episode, I talked about the pros and cons of house sitting, the reasons behind its booming, and the latent societal issues behind that. If you like my content, please leave a 5-star rating, and leave a comment to let me know your thoughts. Thank you for your time. Before next time, take care and good bye!

Happy New Year in advance folks! Today, I am bringing some festive melodies from Appalachian Chamber Music Festival (only a few short clips, and these melodies were believed to be common and famous Christmas songs), and a short introduction of the Harpers Ferry Historic National Park. Highly recommend check out its official website for the Top 10 Tips to get the most out of your visit, along with parking tip which I personally deem as super important. One coolest thing is, The Point, which seems to use to call the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, which span across the three states - WV, VA, and MD. So, it gives you a chance to peak a portion of each state. Thank you, all, for 2024. Happy 2025, everyone!

Most people think cross-cultural relationship is challenging. Last episode, we had Lily, who moved to the United States from Taiwan 12 years ago, now has her sweet family with her husband, Quacy, living in Denver. Today, we are so honored to have them on the podcast together to share their story - How they met, how they navigated the challenges, whether culture-wise, food-wise, throughout their relationship and marriage. And if you are curious, they share the most important and successful tip for their relationship, which might apply to not just cross-cultural relationships, but all relationships.

I met Lily and Kinny at the same time when we all prepared TOEFL exam to study in the U.S. After more than 12 years, I am glad my podcast brought us virtually together again. Lily now has a beautiful family in Colorado, after spending 4 years living in San Francisco. I am so honored to have her on the show to chat about her journey. Hope you will also be inspired by her positivity and like her interesting story with a open mind and a open heart.

Me and Kinny met in a English school in Taiwan, to prepare us to attend the TOEFL exams to study in the US. She is a Japanese majored student, and she went to the UK to study Marketing in 2013. She's now in Taiwan, and learning Spanish. What a cool girl she is to have Japanese, English, and Spanish under her belt, let along Mandarin. Let's have her talk about her opinion to learning more languages, and if she has found these languages benefited her career and her dream.

I always appreciate native English speakers who are willing to learn other languages, because English is so widely-used globally, and it's just so convenient to use English to communicate. In this episode, we are giving credits to my friend, Gio, who are not only willing to take the initiative in learning Spanish, French, Japanese and Mandarin, but also maintaining a long-time pen-pal relationship with his Japanese friend. Happy to have him talk about these adventures and maybe challenges in language learning! Best wishes to Gio's visit to Japan soon!

I had spent a couple months in Australia where me and Pat connected virtually. We have been friends and chatted online for a couple years so far, and today's episode was the first time we spoke directly. It was a huge pleasure to me to have Pat participated in the podcast to talk about her language learning experience, mainly English, and shared her insights abut how to continue learning multiple languages with a positive mindset.

One of the most obvious characteristics about myself is, English is my second language. So, today I am inviting one of my friends whom I met in college and can speak more than 2 languages as an American, Reid, to the podcast, and let he share his opinions on language learning, and how this experience impact his profession, for example, sports commentary. That's really cool!

Some resources I talked about in the podcast below. Sorry I did not do a good job organizing this podcast(maybe spent too much time in writing in my own language). I talked about how excited and uplifted by that I picked up writing in Mandarin, which I did feel bad that I cannot describe what I usually write the same in English(because my English is not that good), though the same kind of talking about miscellany, but my maneuver of Mandarin could make differences that I saw others like my articles (one article I wrote that the kiwi I bought took a long time to ripe, the article only has 2 paragraphs, I finished in less than 10 minutes, got 4 likes - none of my friends nor family know my blog), which is not something I can do in an exotic language in a short time. The novel, Norwegian Wood The Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami The novel I got in Seattle, which I thought was a comedy - The Fermata

Have you ever wondered what caused the many dialects in the United States? And what are the major accents?According to a renounced English teacher, Karen Chung, in National Taiwan University (NTU) . What she suggested was - Time. Here is her academic page, including her interview with one of Taiwan's KOLs via Youtube, and her own podcast about her learning Mandarin. Her parents were German and Sweden descendent, so she can speak German in a young age. This was one of her phonetics courses for English-majored students in NTU, now available online for the general public. In the beginning of the video, she explained what the role Time plays in nurturing language variation. Highly recommended check this out! Maybe you would start develop some interests in language learning just like me!

Imagine you walk into the sauna and a person follows you in and starts to smile at you. Would you responded? You said, "Of course! What if this person is my Miss Right / Mr. Right?" Yes, that could be. But that could also possibly a subsequent heartbroken / grieving if that Miss Right / Mr. Right leaves you in a couple years. If you politely ignored, you could end up the day with a peaceful driving at home cuddling with your lovely pets. This is Zhuangzi's Philosophy - Nothing is really good nor bad, it all depends on our view points. Zhuangzi focuses on the peaceful minds more than anything else - We have the chances of missing out a perfect love but also the chances of avoiding a torturing and suffocating love. You never know. And the only thing Zhuangzi wants us to bear in mind, is to protect our heart. Zhuangzi said - Understanding is more important than love. Simply love without understanding is meaningless. Zhuangzi wants us to put our focus on ourselves instead of others - When we do so, we are keeping ourselves healthy and happy, and at that point, we do not need others to echo on the fact that we are good. Zhuangzi did not mean to be cold or not engage social activities; he asked us to put ourselves first, and those people who really care, they would approach with a good understanding of you, that we do not have to respond to anyone's greetings just out of fear of missing out. Who knows how many "missing out" we are actually grateful for.

Two things want to add to yesterday's episode - The one is the "bird example" in yesterday's episode - A previous version of me, before knowing Zhuangzi, used to think that in order to challenge myself, I should go to a foreign country to compete with all the outstanding people around the world; if I can make it, I am really "something". After knowing Zhuangzi, what I learned is, in the Nature, there is not such comparison as that in the human world - the birds I am seeing flying high to conquer the high pressure, is because they need to, they are driven by the survival instinct, and they won't look sparrows who jumped happily and chattered around the ground small, or at least, we have not found a way to prove that they are doing such comparison among different species - yet, they lose their lives if they cannot compete with their predicators, and humans seem luckier in that sense. The other thing is, a movie I watched on the place to Seattle, Anatomy of a fall - Its NY Times Review. What I learned from the movie - "Sometimes we have no ways to know what is true, we can only make decisions." Zhuangzi said, all the adversity are going to develop our minds and hearts, and to help us make decisions.

I have been sick for quite a long time, even now, sometimes it took me a little more effort to stay awake given the remaining effect of previous medication. But an Oriental Philosopher, Zhuangzi, helped me a lot, both in my recovery of sleeping disorder (now I can sleep really well), and my viewpoints of the world. So this was the reason I recorded this episode. I believe most of the Western philosophers and/or people who have studied philosophy have heard about Zhuangzhi, and if not - Kung-Fu might sound like a Hollywood movie title, but what's rooted in Kung-Fu from the outside is the inside - how to care about our heart, our brain, and our body. Could you imagine how many decades this body has carried you along? Have you cared enough for yourself other than anyone else? It is not telling us to hurt other people in order to protect yourself, but don't cling onto anything other than caring yourself. How to? Sleep well, eat well, be peaceful (love too much is equal to no love at all), and understand it's natural for things to go wrong, and when that happens, imagine my heart is a mirror, regardless how much love / hate, nothing stays in a mirror. Reference - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Hiring a skilled professional to complete home-improvement projects seems to be a common thing in the USA, but this is my first time hiring a person setting up a standing desk other than hiring movers. I was lucky this was a somewhat comfortable experience. When my mind was wandering today, I was thinking, is it possible to let myself not too worry about if I could carry on a conversation? Could it be fine to have that couple minutes of silence without the anxiety to fill in anything? Frankly speaking, at a certain phase of life, do we still have to care that much about if we could hold a conversation with a coworker/acquaintance for like 30 minutes? It is definitely recommended to prepare for common talking points, and show attention and give smile to your counterparts, but I guess at the end of the day, everyone is pretty aware of the game, so how about give ourselves a break, that no one really care that much how we performed except ourselves. Life itself is stressful enough, be kind to people, but if they happen to be not that nice, be polite and stay away, is probably what I found more valuable.

Hey y'all, I believe most of you in the North Pole might have been celebrating the long holiday weekend, but have anyone of you experienced any family conflicts during the holidays? In this episode, PhenPhen is sharing something that really have bothered her quite a long time. I guess for an relatively older adult who has started over in her career to face the aging pressure herself, as well as the psychological pressure that parents are aging, and maybe they will leave this world anytime soon, it's tougher to face that "I know time is ticking, but I have to take care of myself first." Because, "even though I am not as successful as I wish myself to be, this is me. " Hope we all learned to face this real "me".

How many of you have bad experiences with noisy neighbors? I believe throughout a lifetime, you might have bumped into once, twice, or if unfortunately, triple times of noisy neighbors. Poor Granny Phen had a crazy upstair neighbors perpetually moved their furniture items during midnight, to be more specifically, 1 am to 5 am! That was really devastating and brutal! On the flip side, this is a good opportunity for Granny Phen to start looking at houses, and hopefully, after one year, Granny will be able to have her own house! ps, sorry for not able to edit the episode a little better. For some reason, Spotify just did not allow Granny to edit further. So, this is another raw, unscripted, unedited episode.