You can turn on the "menu bar" and then turn off the ribbon and you will have the old 2009 Civil 3D menu to use.
NOTE: New commands for 2010 have only been added to the ribbon
Cheers,
Peter Funk
Civil 3D Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.
p.s. The ribbon was designed to be contextual - that is, once an object is selected, the ribbon will change to present the commands for that object. For example, if you want to edit a surface, select the surface and the ribbon changes to present the commands to label and edit a surface.
Peter Funk
Autodesk, Inc.