New to GW questions

I have been playing WoW since release and have decided to give GW a try seeing as the horde has become extinct on my server. I have a couple of questions about GW.

I noticed you can do PVE and level your character up to unlock skills to be used in the PVP side of things. Can you play your personal character from the PVE side on the PVP side? All I noticed on the PVP side was templates and create a new character. Also weapons and such you gain in the PVE side are these available for your character to use on the PVP side? Always been a fan of uber loot and would like to use it in PVP if I have it in PVE.

yes
a pve (rp) character can both pve and pvp
the pvp character is restricted to pvp areas

the pve character can unlock skills and upgrades for the pvp character to use