When I served as advisor for a student group that was designed to both increase intercultural competence and build friendships between international and domestic students, the students found this activity a little daunting at first but really got into it as time went on. When they got through the step of creating a crossword puzzle in armoredpenguin.com, each student would trade a copy of their puzzle to someone from another country to solve. I would stress that the best conversations involved not just finding the answer to someone else's puzzle but also asking why they chose their clues and answers. Sometimes they enjoyed the conversation so much that I couldn't get them to go home. The most interesting conversation that I heard was among Peruvian students on whether someone could go to heaven if they were not baptized as an infant, all because of a clue and answer that someone chose for their crossword puzzle.

I would add that, in my experience as an instructor, STEM students often self-identify as very curious, but don't necessarily have a lot of practice in finding out the answers about a person or his/her/their culture. To generalize a bit, they tend to trend more toward the introverted & socially awkward (and to identify as such) than does your average arts or business student. So, given that Annette was often working with STEM students, this outcome (not wanting to stop talking) is quite remarkable. 

I feel like this tool would be more useful if the topics were more interlaced with the specific location or discipline.  I was leading a younger professional group who would have very much enjoyed a game-like activity.  I will definitely use this particular tool prior to leaving in the prep meetings.