However, international exchanges often need more forethought. In looking for keypals, find out more than just the school year of the exchanging school. Inquire about the entire calendar, vacations and all. Conflicting school schedules can make keypals as slow as penpals at times. Year-round schedules often use a system of weeks on and weeks off, so that students may attend for a certain number of weeks and then have a two or three week vacation.
Many different schedules exist around the world.
All of these seemingly little details can affect the keypal exchange if the teachers don't plan for them. Many of the girls at Strathmore experienced timing-related troubles at least once in their exchange. It's important to plan wisely so that the students can spend a little time getting to know one another. In fact, most of the girls wanted to know quite a lot about their new keypals. Megan wanted to know about her Australian keypal's family, and about Australian animals, while Hana wanted to know what her Inuit keypal did for fun, and what kind of games they play in the Arctic.