sweeet man... i'm guessing they don't have any type of MSF safety course where you live?? you don't really need it, but it def. helps. Do yourself a favor and buy 'twist of the wrist 2' from keith code... awesome book and it will help you grow as a rider a lot... also look around at some honda forums... you will learn a lot about maintenance and riding technique from them... a lot of riding is completely unintuitive, you wouldn't figure it out without someone explaining it to you or learning the hard way...
for example, make sure you are conciously counter steering. When you turn the handlebars left, the bike will actually go right... when you turn the bars right, the bike goes left... doesn't make sense but thats just the physics of a motorcycle.. you are doing this every time you take a corner, you probably just don't realize what you are doing... start doing this conciously and it will improve on your cornering technique. I know guys that have been riding 5 years and still don't know or understand what counter steering is, its very simple though... go ahead and test it out, next time your going straight down an empty road, take 2 fingers and gently push forward on the right handlebar, which will turn the bars LEFT... but you will see, the bike goes RIGHT...
the other way to turn a bike is with body steering... this is actually shifting your weight on the bike to change its balance... this one is pretty intuitive to figure out...again, stay straight on a road and then just shift your ass to the left side of the bike (but don't counter-steer)... see how much the bike moved? probably not much at all compared to counter-steering. You will realize that 90% of your turning comes from counter-steering. Some people swear by one or the other, but likely this is what you're doing right now... test it and see for yourself... one thing to note, counter steering doesn't work at parking lot speeds (why you never noticed this on your pedal bike). counter-steering only kicks in around 15 mph, before that its 'normal' steering.
other things you should know... DONT hold on tight on the bike anywhere. Your hands should be very loose on the handlebars.. just barely gripping them... you don't want to be gripping the bars hard at all... this will negatively impact the control on the bike, it will be harder to operate the controls if you are gripping hard (brake,throttle,clut ch,etc..) and make it harder to counter steer. also, if you hit a bump, and your hand jerks and you are gripping the throttle hard, you will accidentally give it gas which could result in bad things, or just scare the shit out of you.. not only that, but gripping the bars means you are putting weight on the front end of the bike, which again negatively impacts the way it handles...
same thing with your ass, stay loose on the bike.. you don't need to grip the tank with your legs really hard... instead, weigh the PEGS with your FEET.. (you can do that as hard as you want to so you feel safe) and turn the bike in with your LEGS.. if you see a bump, pick your ass off lightly off the seat... you don't want to be glued to the seat because if you hit a bump, it will bounce you too instead of letting your suspension suck up the impact...
anyway, sorry,i hope i didnt say too much (there's a lot more I could ramble about
). the last thing you want to be is over-whelmed and confused while on the street... just try a little bit of what I said WHEN YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE too... don't over-wealm or confuse yourself... you DONT want to be riding the street, over thinking shit. you need to be looking at cars, anticipating things that are about to happen, and planning reactions... ride like everyone is out to kill you ,because they are... take the learning real slow and be SAFE... oh and PS, welcome to the addiction =). it only gets worse as time progresses!!!