Oh, you are so smart to have a Mac. I am a total Mac Geek!!! There are tons of short cuts. Feel free to ask anytime. Are you a recent switcher? I finally talked my brother into getting one after years. I gave his wife my old iBook. Now they have two Macs and two iPhones! Ha! Ha! It's infectious.
Copy: Command (or the apple curly cue button) and the "C" key
Paste: Command "V"
And while we're at it, in Safari, hit Command T to open a new tab. That always comes in handy.