#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std ;
int main(){
int n ,a,sum = 0;
vector <int> seq ;
cin >> n;
for(int i = 0 ;i< n ;i++){
cin >> a;
seq.push_back(a);
}
for (int i = 0; i<n-2 ;i++){//原本是寫(int i = 0 ; i< seq.size()-2;i++)
if((seq[i+1]<seq[i]&&seq[i+1]<seq[i+2])||(seq[i+1]>seq[i]&&seq[i+1]>seq[i+2])) sum ++ ;
}
cout << sum ;
return 0 ;
}
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