Anxiety. Excitement. Anticipation. As I stuffed my sweatshirt into my carry-on, I worked up a smile for the immigration camera and customs officer. It was midnight, and he graciously greeted me with my first SA WA DEE KA ("Hello and how are you, ma'am,") and asked me my business in Thailand.

I told him I was on an educational exchange. Satisfied, he stamped the king's logo on my passport.

I moved past security, sweating in the steamy 98 degree heat, scanning the crowded area. I was finally one of those people met by someone with a sign in the airport! There it was — FULBRIGHT!

Over the next month and a half, that word would become comfortably familiar as it was flown from every door, meeting hall and school as I traveled with 14 teachers in Thailand and Viet Nam.

During our stay, we met with secretaries and deputy secretaries of education ministries, local administrators, teachers, politicians and university professors. While separated by oceans and time zones, we shared the same educational values: commitment to excellence, a desire to ensure academic success for all and professional development for teachers to ensure the first two goals.

Several school visits stand out, and I smile as I recall the rows of shoes that lined the entrances to the classes or schools. Buddhist culture, even in public schools, encourages removing one's shoes when entering a place of learning, temple or school,

Going to any length to help her son diagnosed with autism, Dr. Nithum started a school. Roong Aroon (School of Dawn), Bangkok, was created by this architectural professor to nurture her son's development, integrate content and ethical practice and provide a holistic learning environment for all.

From a rice paddy living laboratory to promote student understanding of Thai agri/economics to self sufficiency in a reuse/recycling program to the integration of the arts with every subject, the 300 children at Roong Aroon were actively engaged in all aspects of learning AND cleaned their own classrooms beginning at age five.

In the hills north of Chaing Rai along the Burmese and Laotian border, we visited the Mirror Project and Duo Tung, both model programs that promote teacher development from the local area and education for hill tribe children. Hmong, Lahu, Karen and Akha tribes are working to maintain their culture and way of life as the 21st century and development have caused them to adapt. My miniature singing Bucky Badger was a big hit and the Akha children were singing "On Wisconsin" as we left.

During my stay in Bangkok, I lived part time with a veteran teacher, Nit, from the. Darakan School. They began each day with an assembly, and I was treated to a musical performance by the band, dance troupe and native Thai instrument group my first day. Seven hundred students attend this urban school, surrounded by corrugated metal homes, street vendors, industrial buildings and high rises.

I taught alongside Nit, played games with the children and was treated to demonstrations of Thai art, cookery and community service by the students. Not dissimilar to ours, the student body is a mix of incomes, many low incomes, children raised by grandparents and in single parent families, struggling with the issues of poverty, according to Darakan's social worker.

Many of the children had special needs and there were 40 kids to a class yet I did not see anyone pulled for behavior and there was no time out room. They had never heard of the concept of "suspension." And noisy! Children were noisy and giggling and being children, and I kept wondering, where were the discipline problems?

When I looked around the classrooms, I saw diversity with many Thais originally from Burma, China, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and India. Observing the students, it broke any stereotypes I held that Thais were a homogenous people.

And certainly the stereotype that Asian children are quiet flew out the window on my first day in a classroom. It caused me to reflect on my own practice as a teacher in my predominantly English-speaking classroom and its effect on quieting my children recently arriving from Southeast Asia.

In Viet Nam the schools were bursting at the seams with interest in English. Young people would stop us and want to speak English. They have a very high literacy rate and everywhere I saw children and adults reading newspapers and magazines.

The Buddhist culture in both countries has a strong influence on attitude, art and culture. In Thailand, it seemed there was a temple on every corner, and making merit, doing the right thing, was evident. While the traffic in both countries was horrific and streets built for bikes were accommodating millions of motorcyclists and motorists, I can not recall ever hearing a honking horn in Thailand. Was that Buddhist?

My Fulbright hosts told me they hoped I would be culturally challenged by my experience, that I would be moved beyond my comfort zone and experience a cross cultural awakening. They were right.

Whether riding elephants in the mountains, asking so many questions, eating progressively spicier foods, dancing in the streets of Hanoi with Viet Namese celebrating their victory in the Asian Cup, giving food to the monks, walking thousands of ancient stairs to mountaintop historic sites, chasing monkeys in the hillside, clam shelling with Viet Namese children at sunrise, practicing Tai Chi in the parks, sleeping little, eating lots, the list could go on infinitum of the experiences this opportunity afforded me.

As a teacher, I see myself as a lifelong learner. As a recipient of a Fulbright, I now see myself as a cross continental, cross cultural learner, and a fortunate one indeed.

If you would like help in applying for a Fulbright for Educators Award, please email me at shobart@madison.k12.wi.us. The applications for 2008 are closed, but if you begin now, you will be ready for 2009 and an experience of a lifetime! To see more: http://www.geocities.com/keisterriver/DirectoryCalendar.html

Editor's note: Hobart is planning to return to Viet Nam next summer to teach English and train teachers in a local village near My Lai.

Hobart teaches fifth graders to construct origami cubes in geometry class with Thai host teacher at Darakan School, Bangkok.

Hobart and fellow Fulbrighter, Dan Green from West Virginia, learn traditional Thai dance from students in music class in Bangkok.

Lahu children at hilltribe school along the borders of Laos and Myanmar.

Students learning to be mahoots (elephant guides) practice bathing their Asian elephants at Thailand Elephant Conservation Camp.