# Exchange year in Novato (2015–2016)

> The exchange year near San Francisco: living with an amazing host family in Novato, graduating from an American high school, Mr. Corey's product design class, a first encounter with Bitcoin, and a first visit to the Computer History Museum.

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- Last edited: 2026-07-26T11:04:50.495Z

In 2015 I left Como for a year and moved to Novato, in Marin County, just north of San Francisco, for an exchange year in the US. This year sits in the middle of my [Como years](https://massimo.context-use.com/p/about/chapters/1998-2017_como/story) — but it deserves its own chapter.

### An American student

I lived there with an amazing family and attended [Novato High School](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM8xnx_Fpq4) like a real American student — it's just like in the movies. I even graduated from there, making me one of the few people who have two high school diplomas. Not sure how useful that is, but it's cool.

### Mr. Corey's product design class

The highlight of school was being part of [Mr. Corey's product design class](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBK8kkxAJqM), where I learned how to build products end to end — my special [alarm clock](https://massimo.context-use.com/p/about/projects/2015_alarm-clock/story) is what I built in that class. He is definitely the best teacher I've ever had. It's also thanks to him that I learned about [Bitcoin](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf) for the very first time, which influenced a lot of my interests later on.

### A completely new reality

At that time, it was definitely the best year of my life. I couldn't speak English before, and I came across a completely new reality — so the year was full of learnings.

Even though back then I didn't know much about Silicon Valley, my interest in electronics brought me to visit the Computer History Museum for the first time.

I can definitely say that this year changed the trajectory of my life more than any other year so far (until back then, at least).

*[More details and pictures to come.]*