One day about a year ago, Max Typolt's father came home with a proposition for his teenage son.
"Do you want to go to the United States?" Typolt recalled, as he spent his last few days with the Charleroi Area Class of 2008.
Typolt's father said the Council on International Educational Exchange provides opportunities for students to study abroad. For the youthful Typolt, it would be an opportunity to study English.
"They've told me my English has improved since I came here," Typolt said.
Typolt's father is a marketing manager for Olympus Cameras. His mother teaches English.
Typolt left his home in Prague in the Czech Republic Aug. 20 and traveled to New York City for two days of orientation. He arrived at the Pittsburgh International Airport Aug. 23.
Typolt visited Charleroi Area High School a couple days before the school year started Aug. 27 to schedule classes and meet his teachers. He has spent his time in America living with Tom Jarvis and Joe Collins, of Charleroi.
Because he won't receive academic credit for this school, Typolt faces two more years of high school when he returns home.
As the year progressed, Typolt developed friendships with his fellow Charleroi Area students, hanging out after school with some of them.
The biggest adjustment - other than language - was being around people who are friendlier than people in the Czech Republic. Typolt will take with him many friendships, including one with his prom date, Sarah DeGraiza. He hopes to keep in touch with such friends as Chad Pappasergi, Taylor Andrisko and Josh Farner.
Typolt was popular with the Charleroi students, many who jokingly nicknamed him FES, short for Foreign Exchange Student.
"I have lots of memories," Typolt said with a smile.
Typolt said he was a Pittsburgh Penguins fan before he came to the area because of Jaromir Jagr, the most well-known Czech playing in the NHL. He has been caught up in the excitement of the Penguins' Stanley Cup run.
He admittedly knew little about American football - in Europe soccer is called football - but has become a Steelers fan. Typolt will take home with him a New Orleans Saints jersey.
He began playing baseball at age 9 and tried out for the Cougars baseball team. He became a regular designated hitter for the team. Typolt said he was surprised to make the team because baseball is an American sport.
Typolt was born in 1989, the year of the Velvet Revolution - the non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that resulted in the overthrow of the Communist government. At the end of that year, residents of Prague - along with other parts of the country - took to the streets to celebrate the overthrow of the communist regime. They rang bells and shook their keys in celebration.
Typolt said his parents told him that as an infant, he shook his toy keys.
"I was Democratic as soon as I was born," Typolt said.
He has two siblings, a brother, Jonas, 15, and a sister, Madeline, 12.
Having been born in a city of 1.2 million people, Typolt enjoyed the more laid back atmosphere in Charleroi, which is home to roughly 4,000 people.
His year-long visit will end in three weeks. Typolt plans to celebrate his 19th birthday June 14 in New York City with a friend from the Czech Republic and her American husband of five years.
Shortly after, he will return home.
"I don't want to go back," Typolt admitted, adding that if given the opportunity, he would love to stay in the U.S.
