Cubase is ideosyncratic, just like every other program.
When I went from Sonar to Cubase, I was really frustrated, b/c I handn't learned any of the work-arounds with it. It will take some bashing to get through, the Operation Manual is woefully absent in some information, but with a bit of intuition, elbow grease, and the Cubase forum, you'll be making clips soon enough!!
Edit: I'm pretty drunk atm, so I'll reread this tomorrow and see if it makes any sense!