I've never had a permanent pen pal, but I use Postcrossing to fill the gap. It's a site where you can send postcards to random people around the world. You should check it out, it's super cool :p

ooo ive had penpals before, one was my friend when i was like 5 after i moved away and the other was my mom's friend's daughter who lived in england because i wanted to be pen pals with someone who was in a different country lol