#include<iostream>
#include<algorithm>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int n;
cin >> n ;
int *array = new int[n];
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
cin >> array[i];
int num = 0;
for (int i = 1; i < n-1; i++)
{
int a = array[i] - array[i - 1];
int b = array[i] - array[i + 1];
if (a*b>0)
num++;
}
cout << num << endl;
delete[]array;
return 0;
}